Angelo A. Paparelli

Paparelli is a leading authority on the government's EB-5 employment-based immigrant investment program, which lets foreign individuals obtain green cards in exchange for investing at least $500,000 in U.S. plans that generate or preserve at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers. "The work I do in the EB-5 space leads to job creation, and that makes me an employment lawyer," he said. "Over the last few years, a great deal of institutional money has found that the EB-5 program is a less expensive finance model for investments."

He is the founder, past president and executive committee member of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers. At his firm, he formed a cross-disciplinary EB-5 immigrant investment specialty team to represent numerous clients — including banks, real estate developers and entrepreneurs — in order to address and resolve complex and interlocking business and immigration law challenges under the program. "Over the years, the program deteriorated as parties rushed in to try to make a killing," he said. "The government was not on top of it. A lot of questionable practices slipped through. Unscrupulous parties with bad business models have fleeced investors."

His public policy blog, Nation of Immigrators, seeks to reform the process. In late June, he posted a long, detailed critique headlined "All Checks but No Balances — The Systemic Failure to Protect EB-5 Investors."

"Sadly," he wrote, "many EB-5 investors, after writing half-million-dollar or greater checks, ultimately have learned that no balances remain in their capital accounts and no green cards land or stay in their own and their family's wallets."

It doesn't have to be that way, Paparelli said. "My team is unrivaled" at making EB-5 work for clients, "and I'm not just puffing," he said. "We have brought in a large number of people across the nation and in California. When well run, jobs are created cost-free to the taxpayer and the program generates significant tax revenues." Thanks in part to his lobbying efforts, he added, the Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on program abuses. "The SEC is looking harder and integrity measures have been introduced."

Among other reform efforts, he said he has built a coalition of multinational companies, trade groups and immigration stakeholder organizations to challenge a government administrative precedential decision titled Matter of Simeio Solutions LLC, 26 I&N Dec. 542 (April 9, 2015). The ruling makes it harder for employers to move immigrant workers to new locations by requiring extensive red tape, Paparelli said. "As a lawyer, I try to lead the conversation," he said. "I'm looking for a client willing to sue over this."

— John Roemer