Austin T. Fragomen, Jr., Partner and Chairman of Fragomen, is being honored with a Lifetime Service Award by the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) at its annual gala on October 26, 2016 in New York City.
The CMS is a think tank and educational institute devoted to studying international migration, promoting understanding between immigrants and their receiving communities, and creating and refining public policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees and immigrants.
Currently best known as the primary leader of the world’s leading immigration services provider, Austin previously served as Staff Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and International Law. He also was an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He has testified before Congress on a range of immigration issues, including usage of the L-1 visa category by multinational companies. He is the founding co-author of a renowned series of immigration handbooks, which are published by Thomson Reuters/West and provide information on the best practices and latest developments in the field of business immigration. Austin also serves on the Board of Trustees of CMS.
Austin is currently the Chair of the Business Advisory Group of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), an inter-governmental consultative process where governments and others share national, regional and global experiences in migration and development. In July and again in September of 2016, Austin participated in meetings at the United Nations aimed at enhancing the dialogue between the private and public sectors regarding innovative strategies for labor migration policies and international skills mobility. As Chair of the Business Advisory Group, Austin is writing a report on the business view of migration which will be presented to more than 120 national governments attending the GFMD meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh in December 2016.
Austin’s believes that all employees of the firm should give back to our local communities and he has made public service a central part of his personal mission and the mission of the firm. The Fragomen firm has long been a leading provider of pro bono legal services to indigent immigrants. In 2014, the firm launched a special nationwide pro bono initiative in the United States to support unaccompanied minors from Central America. That project has expanded to include on-site legal support for immigrant women and children detained in a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.