The Campbell Corner Podcast – Deirdre Nero (S1:E3)

Transcript

Host: Regina M. Campbell, Esq., The Campbell Law Group (TCLG)

Guest: Deirdre Nero, South Florida immigration attorney and advocate

Introduction

Regina Campbell: Hi, welcome back to The Campbell Corner. I'm your host and principal attorney, Regina Campbell, from The Campbell Law Group. Thank you for joining us for episode three of season one of The Campbell Corner. It is my great pleasure to introduce to you South Florida immigration attorney and activist Deirdre Nero.

Deirdre Nero: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Regina Campbell: Thanks for coming to The Campbell Corner.

Deirdre Nero: Nice to meet you. I already know Regina. Hello.

Immigration from the Trump administration to the Biden administration

Regina Campbell: So, it's an exciting time to be an immigration attorney, isn't it?

Deirdre Nero: Yes, very. It's been an exciting time to be an immigration attorney for a couple of years now. Immigration is one of those fields that's always exciting, because there's always something interesting happening. It's an area of law that keeps you on your toes. But then, when the Trump administration came in, all the immigration attorneys' heads were collectively exploding, because there was something new happening literally every week. It was crazy.

And they always seemed to announce some kind of policy change on a Friday at the end of the day. I'm in a bunch of immigration group chats, and everyone was just going crazy. So it's been an interesting four years, and now that we've transitioned to a different administration, it's still interesting, because they're still making changes and still trying to do things. And then the pandemic came in and threw a big monkey wrench into everything.

Regina Campbell: Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine.

Deirdre Nero: I know there were some times where I literally had clients who were stuck. In the Trump administration, they didn't get much notice. They would change policies fairly quickly, and people were traveling, or they were going to other countries with things pending. It's been kind of crazy. I can talk more about that if you want.

Regina Campbell: It's entirely up to you. I'm also going to ask you what kind of effect the pandemic has had on immigration, right?

Deirdre Nero: Right, that's...

Regina Campbell: Yes. Administrations, of course, change, and you're welcome to talk a little bit more about the specific distinctions, because I know it's almost 180 degrees in the other direction, to some extent, with some of the policies.

Deirdre Nero: It is. It's funny, because I think a lot of us were hoping the changes would be felt immediately, and they definitely were with the tone. The tone of the Trump administration toward immigrants in general was much harsher. They even changed the motto of the immigration agency. They took out their customer-service type of words, and the whole tone was different. So we felt the change in tone pretty quickly.

But with a lot of the policy changes, and, from my perspective, the damage that was done during the Trump administration, you can't undo it overnight. It's very hard to undo that stuff overnight. So it's been slow, but we're definitely starting to see positive changes.

The pandemic, travel restrictions and closed consulates

Deirdre Nero: But then, as you mentioned, the pandemic threw a huge monkey wrench into everything and made immigration a lot more complicated, because of the travel restrictions. In addition to the travel restrictions, embassies and consulates around the world completely shut down for the majority of 2020. They're in the process of reopening, but at most embassies and consulates you still can't get an appointment unless it's a life-and-death emergency. So even though they're open, they're not actually open in the sense of processing cases, right? So for all intents and purposes, a lot of them are practically still closed.

So it's been very complicated, with people getting trapped, not just abroad, but here in the United States. We had a lot of clients who were trying to leave before whatever status they had in the United States expired, and they couldn't, because their country had canceled flights or had restrictions, and they weren't allowed to go back to their country. And you don't want to be overstaying and illegal in the United States. So helping people in that situation maintain legal status became a big mission for most immigration attorneys, myself included.

Now we're seeing things starting to open back up again. But I think a lot of us were expecting the Biden administration to immediately do away with a lot of the restrictions. Because they've been so focused on getting the pandemic under control, I think they felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Do we rescind these to be more immigration friendly? But then it looks like we're not doing everything we can to control the pandemic, and that's really our number one focus. I could picture them in the war rooms trying to make the tough decisions: what do we do in this situation? So a lot of those restrictions were kept in place.

Which vaccines will be accepted

Deirdre Nero: But now, finally, they're saying that as soon as next month, November, we're going to see some of these restrictions lifted. The new thing they're talking about, and I posted an article on my law firm's social media that I saw yesterday, in fact, the new debate is probably going to be which vaccines are going to be accepted. A lot of people in certain countries are getting vaccines that might not be acceptable. So even though they're fully vaccinated, they might not be vaccinated with a vaccine that we're going to accept, and that's putting people into another position.

I actually had a potential client I was talking to on Monday, I think. They had been vaccinated twice with the vaccine from their country, but they don't think it's one that's going to be accepted. So they came to the United States and got another two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which they know will be accepted. So now they have four vaccines.

Regina Campbell: Wow.

Deirdre Nero: I know. I was like, wow. So that's going to be, I think, the new thing we're going to be watching in terms of travel restrictions.

Regina Campbell: That's what I've been hearing. They're going to open the borders with Mexico and Canada. But then what's the issue with the vaccine? Some have gotten one AstraZeneca vaccine, and then another from their country.

Deirdre Nero: The thing was that the restrictions were actually just on the land ports of entry. If you flew, you didn't have those same restrictions, and a lot of people didn't even understand that. So there are a lot of little things. I was joking with my team that I think we've become travel agents, in a way, as a result of the pandemic, because now we're giving a lot of advice about traveling.

Regina Campbell: How to get here.

Deirdre Nero: Yes, exactly.

Regina Campbell: Modes of transportation.

Deirdre Nero: Maybe we should open Nero Immigration Travel Agency or something like that.

Back to in-person meetings

Regina Campbell: I like that. This pandemic has made us all reinvent a lot of different things, and evolve, and be dynamic in the face of change. You're resilient. It's amazing.

Deirdre Nero: Definitely the whole going-remote thing was a big change that I know everyone across the board, in all industries, felt. And now we're transitioning back into being in person. What does that look like, and how comfortable are people with that? I have clients now who want to come in and do in-person meetings again. I literally did my first in-person meeting this week.

Regina Campbell: Wow.

Deirdre Nero: And it was a little like, how do we navigate this? We were sitting far away from them. We kept our masks on, because we were trying to keep everyone feeling comfortable.

Regina Campbell: Do you shake their hands? Do you give them a kiss on the cheek, like a lot of Latins do?

Deirdre Nero: Exactly. A lot of Europeans and Latins, we do that. I've been caught in situations where someone comes in and we're kind of like, what do we do? So it's interesting. But my team is back in person, and so we're ready to go.

Business and family immigration

Regina Campbell: Do you focus on one particular area of immigration?

Deirdre Nero: I do have a particular focus. I focus on what we call business immigration. That deals a lot with investors, entrepreneurs, professionals and corporate immigration. It also includes things like employer immigration compliance: helping US companies stay in compliance with, for example, their I-9 or E-Verify requirements for their employees. We also do quite a bit of family immigration, helping people bring their relatives to the United States.

Regina Campbell: Good to know.

Deirdre Nero: Typically it's US citizens and permanent residents who can petition to bring foreign national family members over. So we do a fair amount of that as well. And then the most fun is helping people naturalize. That's always fun. They get their little flag, and we always get so happy when we help someone become a US citizen. That's really the culmination.

I've been doing this for 18 years already, which I can't believe. When I say that, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm getting old." But I have clients who we took through the entire life cycle of immigration. They've been my clients the whole time. Maybe they started as tourists, and we helped them get their tourist visa. Then they transitioned to being a student, and we helped them with their student visa. After they had their student visa, they got a job with a US company, so we helped them transition to a professional work visa. Then that company loved them and wanted to keep them, so we helped them get a green card based on their work. Once they'd had their green card for several years, we helped them become a citizen. And once they're a citizen, we helped them petition for their family members. So it's the whole cycle, and I love doing that.

Regina Campbell: I love that, right? Helping someone through the whole process. It really is beautiful. I have some friends who also became citizens, and when I see them, there's the biggest smile on their face when they're holding the American flag.

Deirdre Nero: I know, I love it. It's the best.

Regina Campbell: It is.

Deirdre Nero: I started sending clients passport covers once they naturalize, because I think it's just a nice little thing for them. Like, okay, go get your passport. Finally. It's been a long time in the making. So it's always a pleasure to help do that.

Visa numbers, immigration reform and demand by country

Regina Campbell: Love that. Have you seen any changes, particularly in the types of visas or the number of visas, in business or in any of the areas you work in, either increases in the number of available visas or decreases in certain ones, that you want to talk about?

Deirdre Nero: Not in particular, as far as the numbers changing. Those are typically congressionally mandated limitations, so that takes laws being changed, which is quite complicated. Especially when it comes to immigration, it seems like they're always trying to change the immigration laws, but it never seems to go all the way to the finish line. I've been doing this, like I said, for about 18 years now, and they've been talking about doing immigration reform basically the entire time. And I know that conversation was there before I started practicing as well. So it's hard.

But in terms of demand, we have seen a lot of increased demand from certain countries. Lately it's been a lot of Colombians, a lot of Argentinians, a lot of Chileans. I think it really depends on what's happening in other countries. That drives those trends. When people see something coming in their government that they're uncomfortable about, you start to see more people from that country.

Regina Campbell: That certainly makes sense.

Deirdre Nero: Yeah. It's interesting to stay on top of everything that's happening around the world.

Regina Campbell: It is, especially right now. Unfortunately, there are a lot of governments around the world taking advantage of the pandemic to clamp down on control, with authoritarianism and so forth. So I can only imagine it's potentially going to increase, depending on what continues to happen.

Deirdre Nero: But luckily for me, I guess, we stayed quite busy throughout the pandemic. There was a period, especially when Trump was first putting in the restrictions, and it wasn't just the country-based restrictions. He also did visa-based bans, which Biden did away with pretty quickly when his administration came in. But I remember feeling for a second there, am I going to have to start doing another type of law?

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: Immigration is all I've done for 18 years. I don't really know how to do another type of law. Maybe I'm going to have to reinvent myself in that way, 18 years in. I was stressing about that so much. And literally the opposite happened. It was just so busy. We've never been busier.

Regina Campbell: It's amazing, though. I guess that's good. And I think in this country we never thought that might be an issue, or that something could change so drastically. So I think it's a sign of the times.

Deirdre Nero: I agree.

Advocacy and the National Alopecia Areata Foundation

Regina Campbell: So you're really big into immigration reform and immigrants' rights, to the point of traveling to Washington to push for and help with some of those issues. Is there any specific act or legislation you're pushing right now?

Deirdre Nero: Not right now. I've always remained a very impassioned advocate for immigration reform and immigrants' rights. But lately, I will say, my advocacy efforts have been more focused on my private endeavors, which I think we're going to talk about a little bit more, with the foundation I'm involved with. I have done a lot of advocacy work in DC on immigration, but lately my DC efforts have been focused more on my foundation.

Regina Campbell: Okay. Let's talk about it. So you're the secretary of the board of directors for the National Alopecia... sorry, I was just mispronouncing this.

Deirdre Nero: Don't feel bad. It's common, just like my name. It's mispronounced all the time too, but you did good with my name. It's the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: I'm secretary of the board, actually, until the end of this year. I cannot believe it, but I've already been the secretary for the full time that's allowed under the bylaws of the foundation, five years, so that went by fast. But I'm also on their advocacy and legislative team, so that's where I've picked up my advocacy efforts.

Living with alopecia

Deirdre Nero: The National Alopecia Areata Foundation is the premier patient foundation for the autoimmune disease alopecia areata, which I have. Originally, that's obviously what got me interested in doing this work, because it was something very personal to me, and in that regard it helped me heal myself in a lot of ways.

It's an autoimmune disease that makes your hair fall out. So this is Christy. This is my wig. She has a name, Christy. All my wigs have names. If I take this off, I'm completely bald. I don't have eyebrows; this is microblading. No eyelashes, except for a few stray ones that grew on one eye, I don't know why. I wear a lot of eyeliner to hide that. I don't have body hair. This is because of an autoimmune disease where my body basically attacks my hair as something that shouldn't be there, as something that's wrong. It's like a misfiring of your immune system.

So it's a really hard thing to deal with as a woman, but also for men as well. It's very hard for your self-esteem, your self-image, everything you feel about yourself. It sounds like, "Oh, it's just hair. It's just cosmetic." But it is like losing a body part. Your hair is part of your body, and when suddenly it's not there, it's very difficult to deal with. It really changes the way you see yourself and the way you perceive others see you.

As a professional, it also adds another layer to it. A lot of times I don't wear my wig, right? A lot of my life I'm walking around without my wig on, and I'm fine with it. I'm very open about my condition, at least for the past several years. It wasn't always that way. It was an evolution, and the foundation actually helped me make that evolution. That's part of why I'm so passionate about being an advocate for them, because I know what it did for me, and I want other people to have that.

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: But it's funny, because in the professional setting I'm always like, okay, I guess I should probably have my hair on. When I'm talking to a potential client, I don't want them, the whole time I'm telling them about their visa and all these complicated issues we're talking about, to be staring at my head and wondering, "Does she have cancer? Is she sick?" Because, unfortunately, I do get those questions a lot. Imagine walking around bald. Part of what the foundation wants to do is raise awareness, so people know what alopecia is. So when they see a bald woman, they don't just assume she's going through chemotherapy. They might think, "Oh, maybe this person has alopecia." But if you don't know what it is, you obviously can't know that, right?

Regina Campbell: So raising awareness, I'm sure, is going to be very, very important, because I know some people get frightened. They don't know if it's cancer, or something that could be potentially contagious. Unfortunately, when you don't have awareness of what something can be, you're going to...

Deirdre Nero: Exactly. And with my clients, I don't want them worried: "Oh, maybe she can't handle my case." Or not even that, but just being distracted from what I'm saying about their visa, and then I'm going to have to repeat it a hundred times when they call me back. So typically in the professional setting I've got Christy or one of my other girls on.

But I am still very open. I think as an advocate I had to come to terms with being open, because I was like, okay, I'm going to be an advocate. To be an open advocate means having to be authentic and show my authentic self.

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: So at least in some settings, I don't always have my wig on. Right now I wanted to wear it, and here I am wearing it. But in other settings, maybe if I do a fundraiser for the foundation, I'll typically do that without my wig on.

Regina Campbell: Yes.

Deirdre Nero: Or when we do the lobbying trips and we're up in DC. Unfortunately, we haven't actually physically been to DC, but we were still able to do our advocacy on Zoom, which is interesting. It's not quite the same, but I guess we've all had to become accustomed to that in the last year and a half. But typically I'll do those without it too, because it's part of getting the message across when you have a very visual condition.

Regina Campbell: That is visual, yes. Yes, I know what you mean.

Deirdre Nero: It's not that you want to capitalize on that, but it's a good way to get people to understand. "Oh, I get it."

Regina Campbell: Yes, they understand. And I think the thing that's amazing is that with clients, you might put on your wig so it's not distracting, and you're taking on the attorney role, doing what's best for the client. But then when you take it off and you're an advocate in general, you can feel comfortable with yourself. Your voice shines through, your person. It comes through as you being confident and proud, and that is the most important thing. There are people who don't have that, whether they have hair or don't have hair, and they have to learn to...

Deirdre Nero: But I can just pop my wig on, and I can feel comfortable. That was a process, many years in the making. I've had this for about half of my life.

Regina Campbell: For half your life?

Deirdre Nero: I'm 44 now, and I got it when I was 21, so over half my life.

Regina Campbell: Yes. That's very tough. I mean, you're brave and courageous, honestly, every time I see you. And I see you have jewelry too, don't you? You have a jewelry line.

A jewelry line and false eyelashes

Deirdre Nero: So my sister and I started a jewelry line. We've actually been kind of inactive on it recently, just because of other commitments, but we did start a jewelry line together that was mostly big earrings. The idea was that when you're someone suffering from hair loss, you want to have something fun, something big to accent your look. It's hard, but at least I, and I think other women who suffer from alopecia and other medical hair loss feel this way too, feel less feminine when you don't have your hair.

Regina Campbell: I got you.

Deirdre Nero: So with a piece of jewelry or something, how do you get that back? And having to do makeup, the false eyelashes, which I still don't wear. I try really hard, because I want them so badly, but I can't get them to stay correctly. I don't have the magic touch with false eyelashes.

Regina Campbell: You wouldn't want to see me put on false eyelashes. That would be like this.

Deirdre Nero: Yeah, it's not very pretty. But I have had a couple of occasions to have professional makeup done for something, and they put them on, and I'm like, "Oh, if only I could do it myself."

Regina Campbell: Yes. My daughter can just snap them on. Snap.

Deirdre Nero: It's a new generation.

Regina Campbell: I know. If I even try, she just starts laughing at me, and I'm like, yeah, I still have the glue everywhere.

Deirdre Nero: I understand. I understand.

The most influential people in her life

Regina Campbell: So I want to ask you: someone so strong, so powerful, an advocate in so many areas, for immigration and also for alopecia, which has been a difficult journey for yourself. Who has been the most influential person in your life?

Deirdre Nero: Oh my gosh, there are so many. I think my parents, probably. I know that sounds like a cliché answer, but I've been such a lucky person to have amazing, strong parents who encouraged me to be the way I am, and really let me run with my crazy, sometimes overpowering nature, and encouraged me to be a strong, powerful woman. So I think they definitely have been big influences.

I think my boyfriend, Eric Grover, who's an attorney as well, has been a great influence on me in terms of being a business owner. I've watched him grow his business, and that helped me a lot, especially a couple of times when I was thinking of throwing in the towel and just going back to working for a firm. Maybe I don't want to run my own business anymore. Watching him really helps me: okay, you can do it. Stay inspired. Being a business owner is hard.

Regina Campbell: Well, they don't teach you that in law school.

Deirdre Nero: No.

Regina Campbell: It's separate from being a lawyer.

Deirdre Nero: Really, it's separate. It's like we have two jobs, right? One is actually being a good lawyer, but the other one is running a business, and I never learned how to do that part. So he's been really good for me in that way.

And there's a recent person who's been very inspirational to me, especially on the alopecia advocacy front, and that's Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Regina Campbell: Okay.

Deirdre Nero: She's a congresswoman from Massachusetts who, at the beginning of 2020, before all the pandemic craziness started, came out as having alopecia universalis, which is the same kind I have, where you lose everything: all your hair, your eyelashes, your eyebrows. And from day one she has been on the floor of Congress bald, on TV, not even worrying about it at all. Just like, "Okay, I'm bald now." She did a video coming out, and she's just being herself.

Regina Campbell: Being herself.

Deirdre Nero: And she's become a really strong advocate for our patient community and our foundation. Just watching how powerful and awesome she is, walking around bald from day one... it took me a million years to get even remotely to that point.

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: Even just partially, because I call myself a half-timer: I'm in my wig, and then I'm bald. She's awesome. Recently our advocacy team at the foundation had the opportunity to do an in-person meeting with her. I mean, it was on Zoom, but the 2021 version of in person. I think I was crying within two minutes of the meeting, because she's just awesome.

Regina Campbell: Very powerful and outspoken, and just rocking it. She's very confident in herself. It sounds like she exudes that confidence.

Deirdre Nero: And I see her, and I'm like, you know what I mean? So I do think that's going to happen eventually. I don't know if I'm all the way there in my journey. I think the missing puzzle piece for me is to not worry about it in terms of client interactions and all of that. I'm not quite there yet, but when I see her, I get inspired. And my boyfriend's very encouraging. He's like, "I think you'd get more business if you did."

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: "I think you'd be busier and more successful. You're so worried about it." I don't know. But then I'd be, like, the bald attorney. I don't know if I'm ready for all of these monikers. I'm not quite there on my journey. But everybody, stay tuned. Maybe you'll see me back here on season five of the podcast, and I'll be like...

Regina Campbell: That's it. It's part of your journey. Everyone has a journey. You've got to do it at your own pace, whatever you feel.

Deirdre Nero: Yeah. And that's something we also impress upon our patient community, because not everyone is ready to come out that way, or wants to, ever.

Regina Campbell: Yeah, it's true.

Deirdre Nero: Some people are like, okay, that's the end-game goal. I definitely want to get there. For other people, it's not even something they're considering, but they're still very outspoken advocates for alopecia. So it's not that they're hiding that they have it. It's just not even a thing for them to consider. So everyone has their own...

Regina Campbell: Their own level of comfort, and their own purpose behind things. And they just need to know that it's okay.

Deirdre Nero: It doesn't mean that you're a lesser advocate because you don't want to take your wig off. So that's also something we impress upon everyone in our patient community.

Fundraisers and casino night

Regina Campbell: So by all means, if you can give us some information, we'll post it with the video, so if anyone...

Deirdre Nero: I would love to. That would be amazing. I'd love to get people out to fundraisers. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we haven't had a fundraiser in a while. But before the pandemic, I was doing a really fun casino night.

Regina Campbell: I remember, with silent auctions.

Deirdre Nero: It was so fun.

Regina Campbell: We did that at another foundation's gala, and we were like, "This is so fun."

Deirdre Nero: Yeah. I know. It's so fun to do a casino night. And I always have a really cool prize at the end, because obviously you're not gambling for money. You're gambling for donations, basically.

Regina Campbell: Yeah.

Deirdre Nero: But at the end, the person who wins big at the casino gets a prize, like a cruise, a really nice prize. It's really fun. Open bar, we had a bar sponsor, and really great events. So I'm really excited to get back to that at some point. And it's all for a really good cause.

Closing

Regina Campbell: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I want to thank you so much for coming today to The Campbell Corner. It's such a pleasure to have you, a wonderful immigration attorney and such a strong advocate. I really, really do admire you.

Deirdre Nero: I appreciate that, and I really thank you. I feel honored. I think you said it was episode three?

Regina Campbell: Yes.

Deirdre Nero: So I feel super honored, like one of the first ones.

Regina Campbell: You are. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Deirdre Nero: I'd love to come back next season or the season after that and give an update.

Regina Campbell: Yeah, give us an update. This is awesome.

Deirdre Nero: Great. I might steal your idea. I'm very jealous that you're doing this.

Regina Campbell: We're trying something new, something different. Thank you so much. Hopefully everyone loves it. It kind of segues into my goodbye. I'm told what to say, because I go off my cards all the time. I do want to thank you, and I want to thank the audience so much for coming back and being part of The Campbell Corner.

If you missed any of our prior podcasts, our last one was with Cindy Luna, actress, assistant producer and director from Hollywood. We hope you catch today's. We also have future podcasts coming. We welcome you to follow us on social media. We're new to Twitter, by the way. Also come see our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel, and hopefully pass the word along about our podcast channels. And stay tuned, because next week we have the rock star accountant of the stars, Paul Garcia, as our next guest. So stay tuned, everybody, and thank you so much for joining us.

Deirdre Nero: Thank you for having me. Thank you. Bye.