Lyre, Lyre, Pantz & Fier

Do you remember the YouTube video giving annotated highlights of a seminar put on by the immigration lawyers at Cohen & Grigsby PC? The goal of the seminar was to advise employers on the legal framework in which to hire foreign workers and guide them through the PERM Green Card process. You may also remember the famous bombshell from attorney Lawrence Lebowitz, ""Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker."

I just found a cute, but informative, link in the Comments section at Patrick Thibodeau's ComputerWorld article from October 5, 2007, "Hiring Video's Aftermath: Law Firm says Words Ill-Chosen, But Advice Proper." The folks at Job Destruction.info put together a fake website for the equally fake law firm of Lyre, Lyre, Pantz & Fier, advertising the firm's expertise in lowering your company's costs by helping you replace your expensive American employees with lower cost workers from overseas. But remember, "So hurry and get your piece of the pie before it's gone. If you don't, someone else will. "

The real beauty to this website is the link to the original footage of the now infamous Cohen & Grigsby seminar. We can now judge for ourselves as to whether the doctored-up YouTube video misrepresented the law firm's presentation or instead showed a factual representation of the highlights of the seminar.

According to the ComputerWorld article, the law firm is desperately trying to back off of their original statements by stressing the legality of their advice. I'm sure it's all perfectly legal, and Cohen & Grigsby, PC are doing an excellent job in representing both the letter and the spirit of the law. Americans need to realize that there is no fraud being committed by anyone. Stepped up enforcement of the law to eliminate "abuse" will not do any good and may even be counterproductive. Only a comprehensive overhaul of the entire Visa and Green Card processes will eliminate this current rate of job destruction for American workers.

(Cross-posted at Carrie's Nation.)