Speaking will be P. Christopher Jaensch (JD 95), who also received a UF bachelor’s degree in history in 1992. While at UF, he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa Society and Florida Blue Key, the oldest and most prestigious leadership honorary in Florida.

Jaensch is a member of The Florida Bar, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Sarasota Bar Association. He has served as president of the Sarasota-Manatee International Trade Club and serves as regional vice chair, Tampa Bay, in the Central Florida Chapter of AILA. He is active in several local organizations, including the influential Laurel Park Neighborhood Association in downtown Sarasota.

Jaensch has more than 13 years of experience in the field of immigration and nationality law and focuses his practice on four primary categories: 1) investors and entrepreneurs; 2) business executives, managers and professionals; 3) amateur and professional athletes and coaches; and 4) performing artists and immigrants with extraordinary ability.

It did not take long for Fox-Isicoff to find success. Having started with the Department of Justice as an INS trial attorney, she soon became a special assistant U.S. attorney for immigration. Despite this, she wasn’t completely satisfied with her work. A good deal of that came from seeing first-hand how unpleasant immigration enforcement can be.

“You see things in this field that you can’t make right in your heart or in your head,” she said. “It makes you question humanity, honestly. You’ll see things that’ll make you say, ‘I can’t understand how this can be.’ And that’s a very frustrating part of enforcement.” Fox-Isicoff cited a couple of recent examples that she’s dealt with, adding that the revenue that she generates from her corporate work allows her to take some enforcement cases pro bono.

One such case involved a beauty queen from Colombia who spoke out against the FARC, a powerful guerilla group there. FARC then kidnapped her and her brothers, and used acid to burn the hands off one of them. Despite this treatment, he was not granted asylum in the United States. “There’s something that’s got to tear at your heart if you’re a human being, she said. “How unfair can a law be?”

Fox-Isicoff said that while transitioning to the business side of immigration has spared her from some of these cases, business immigration law is not without its frustrations. She described the laws as being little better.

“On the business side, they may not be cruel and inhumane,” she said. “They’re just idiotic.”

Fox-Isicoff said that a major reason why the business immigration laws are inadequate is because the congressmen who are voting on them usually have very little expertise in the subject.

“It’s like they’re a jack of all trades and a master of none,” she said.

During her presentation, Fox-Isicoff cited many examples of inefficient or inadequate laws, one being how L Visas are treated. L Visas are given to managerial employees who come to the United States to work for a branch in the United States. While that may not seem problematic on its face, how they are handled for companies that seek to set up new U.S. branches causes some issues, Fox-Isicoff said.

While most L Visas are good for three years, if the U.S. branch is new, it becomes only one year. This means that a company has very little time to become successful and obtain an extension. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that L Visa holders must manage employees, forcing these companies to employ workers, even if it is not financially wise, or even financially possible.

“It’s created almost an impenetrable bar for anything but the largest business establishing branches in the U.S.,” Fox-Isicoff said, “in my opinion a bar that we don’t want to create. We want foreign businesses to succeed here, and have the opportunity to employ U.S. workers in due course. We don’t want to create a situation where they’ve got to hire so many people their first year of operation that they can’t keep their doors open.”

It is estimated that one million people, mostly women and children, are trafficked around the world each year, lured into involuntary servitude and sexual slavery. According to the Somaly Mam Foundation, a non-profit public charity committed to ending modern slavery around the world, global slave trade generates $12 billion annually.

In an effort to bring these issues to light, the University of Florida Levin College of Law will hold a Human Trafficking Symposium on Jan. 28 from 4:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. in UF Law’s Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (room 180). Co-sponsors of the event include UF’s Immigration Law Association, LexisNexis, CaribLaw, Asian/Pacific American Law Association, and the Hispanic and Latino/a Law Student Association. The event is free and open to UF students. Presentation Schedule:

4:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. – Luz Estella Nagle, a professor of law at Stetson University College of Law and expert on human trafficking, will speak about the impact of globalization on human trafficking.

5:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Break

5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. – The Human Trafficking Project, a New York-based non-profit organization that utilizes art and technology to raise awareness of modern day slavery, connect those working to combat the issue and support trafficking survivors, will present a film about international child trafficking titled, “Holly.” This film addresses child sex slavery in Cambodia. For more information on the film and The Human Trafficking Project, visit http://traffickingproject.blogspot.com/2007/12/human-trafficking-film-holly.html.

7 p.m. – 8 p.m. – Panel discussion and food. Panelist, including Professor Nagle, Tyson Elliot, detective, Alachua County Special Victims Unit and Sherry Kitchens, president, Alachua County Human Trafficking Task Force, will discuss current efforts to combat human trafficking in Florida.

For more information regarding the symposium, contact Justin Bleak, president of UF Law’s Immigration Law Society, at justbleak@gmail.com or call 352-262-1300.