Dear Friends,

I have practiced immigration law through different administrations, changing policies, new forms, new procedures, and shifting priorities. Change has always been part of immigration law.

But practicing immigration law during the current Trump administration has felt different.

There was a time when I could tell a client with a relatively straightforward case what to expect. We could explain the process, prepare the filing, anticipate the likely issues, and give them some reasonable sense of what would happen next.

Today, I find myself saying something very different:

This is the rule today. But we will keep watching, because it may change tomorrow.

Forms change. Filing requirements change. Fees change. Procedures change. Sometimes a new edition of a form becomes mandatory with little or no grace period. USCIS continues to issue policy updates that affect how cases are adjudicated. And procedures that lawyers and clients had grown accustomed to can change quickly.

Even the way we represent our clients has changed. Beginning in May 2026, for example, USCIS stopped allowing attorneys and accredited representatives to participate remotely in field-office interviews except in limited circumstances. Attorneys who once could appear by telephone now generally must be physically present.

For an immigration law firm, these are not abstract policy changes.

They affect real people.

They affect the mother who has spent years waiting for an answer. The spouse terrified that saying one thing incorrectly at an interview could jeopardize a future with her family. The employer who has done everything asked of it and suddenly faces another hurdle. The survivor who finally found the courage to come forward and is now trying to navigate a system that feels increasingly difficult to predict.

And they affect how we practice law.

There are very few cases anymore that I would describe as truly “straightforward.”

We prepare more. We question assumptions that might have been safe a year ago. We check forms and filing requirements again before something leaves our office. We prepare clients for interviews that previously might never have been scheduled. And when our clients need us sitting beside them at an interview, we go.

It has required more from all of us.

And I am extraordinarily proud of how our firm has responded.

We have not lowered our standards because the work has become harder. We have raised them.

We have spent more time preparing clients. We have adapted our systems. We have studied new policies as they are issued and adjusted our strategies when circumstances change. We have had difficult conversations with clients about risks that may not have existed when they first came to us.

Most importantly, we have continued to fight for them.

And over the past year, something else has become increasingly clear to me.

Our work cannot always stop at the doors of USCIS.

More immigrants are finding themselves facing removal proceedings, and the consequences could not be more serious. Immigration court is an entirely different arena. A person may be fighting to remain with a spouse, a child, a career, or a community they have spent years building. The quality of their representation matters enormously.

We have seen the need for experienced, thoughtful, and compassionate removal defense become increasingly urgent.

So Agarwal Law Group is expanding.

We are building a removal defense practice.

This is not a decision we made lightly. I have always believed that a law firm should not enter a practice area simply because there is demand for it. We should do it only if we can provide the level of representation our clients have come to expect from us.

We are ready to do that.

For nearly a decade, our firm has represented immigrants through some of the most consequential moments of their lives. We have represented families, employers, survivors of abuse and trafficking, professionals, children, spouses, and people trying to build a future in the United States.

Now, when appropriate, we will also be able to stand beside clients in immigration court.

I wish I could say that I expect immigration law to become simpler soon.

I don't.

What I can say is this:

We will keep learning.

We will keep adapting.

We will keep showing up.

And we will keep fighting for the people who trust us with their lives, their families, and their futures.

‍Pratibha Kanive Agarwal
Founder & Managing Attorney
Agarwal Law Group, PLLC

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