THE TRICKY BUSINESS OF BEING AN IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY IN 2025

As sweeping changes reshape the immigration system, a wave of demand is fueling legal tech startups, boutique law firms, and social media-savvy lawyers.

- BY TEKENDRA PARMAR

PAPER CHASE Clients of Solano Immigration Law, headed to an appointment at the USCIS Atlanta field office.

IN THE MORNING OF June 30, Zaira Solano heads to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services' Atlanta field office, an austere government building about 30 minutes from downtown. An immigration lawyer who has practiced for over 13 years, Solano is meeting a client preparing for a green card interview after marrying a U.S. citizen.

It's a routine matter—one of hundreds of appearances in this building over the past decade for Solano, founder of Solano Immigration Law Firm (No. 3,560 on this year's Inc. 5000). But this time, she has a low-grade sense of nervousness, as she has at every appearance for the past six months, since the immigration legal system has been thrown into turmoil by a flurry of executive orders issued by the White House. She takes a spin around the parking lot looking for ICE agents before joining her client. "There's an overwhelming fear and anxiety for people who are in the process right now, including ourselves and our staff," says Solano, whose firm primarily works on family-based immigration, asylum, and deportation cases nationwide.

As President Trump makes good on his promise to be the most anti-immigration president in American history, attorneys like Solano have been busier than ever, working to help people who want to move to the U.S. or legalize their status here. Amid concerns over evaporating due process, threats of deportation, and the growing number of ICE raids on businesses and communities across the country, it's a turbulent time to be an immigration attorney in America.