Lakshmi Challa (Photo by Jay Paul)
Lakshmi Challa often runs into people who are leery of immigration. The India native, who has lived in Virginia most of her life, doesn’t take it personally.
“You might not like immigration, you might not even like immigrants, but if you want our GDP to grow, we need immigrants,” she says. “When you look at immigration from an economic perspective, it’s in our best interest.”
The Richmond attorney has exclusively practiced immigration law for more than 20 years, helping local and national companies recruit an international workforce and attract foreign direct investment.
The governor’s office reported last year that while immigrants comprise nearly 13% of the state’s population, they account for 30% of Virginia’s physicians and surgeons and 23% of STEM jobholders. Foreign-born workers hold 57% of the state’s personal care jobs and 39% of jobs in building and dwelling services. In addition, the more than 20,000 international students attending Virginia colleges and universities spend more than $717 million a year.
“Not only are they students and employees, they’re consumers buying houses, cars and groceries,” Challa says. “The bottom line is, unfavorable immigration laws hurt the economy.”
According to Challa, there is no industry right now that is not suffering from a lack of resources.
“Our financial and tech firms, engineering companies, hospitals, landscaping and hospitality sectors rely heavily on immigrants,” she says. “In addition, we’ve been losing foreign direct investment. What better way to grow an economy than other people’s money?”
Challa says there’s a misconception out there that immigrants take jobs from Americans. “Just as an example, a few years ago North Carolina posted 1,400 agriculture jobs, and only 10 U.S. citizens applied.”
In fact, agriculture is what first brought Challa’s family from India to the United States in the 1940s.
“Chapel Hill was our Plymouth Rock — my grandfather came here as a premier expert on agricultural economics,” she says. “At that time, Asians weren’t allowed to engage in the U.S. immigration process.”
Challa was born in India but moved to the United States at age 3 with her parents. Her father received a doctorate in geology from the University of North Carolina before working at Virginia State University.
“I graduated from Petersburg High School with the proud crowd of 1982,” Challa says. “After high school, we moved back to India. Like most Indian fathers, mine wanted me to go to medical school, and they had an opening.”
But Challa had a different path in mind. Ever since she was little, she’d wanted to be a lawyer. “My father was very particular about books and made sure I read the classics — Atticus Finch in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ really spoke to me,” she says. “I fought tooth and nail against medical school. So instead, my parents arranged a marriage for me.”
One night over a few cold beers with her new husband, Chakr, she confessed she wanted to go to law school. Years passed, and she thought her dream was forgotten.
“When we finally moved to the United States, Chakr bought me an LSAT book,” Challa recalls. “We had a daughter, were making $800 a month and didn’t have a car. I thought law school was unrealistic. But he told me if I wanted to go, we would figure it out.”
Challa was accepted to the University of Richmond School of Law. Because of her own experience with the immigration process, she had an affinity for immigration law.
“When I moved back to Virginia, where I’d grown up, I effectively lost my permanent resident status because I had stayed outside the U.S. beyond the statutory period allowed,” Challa says. “Immigration is a long journey — it’s extremely complicated, and there’s little access to information, even with the internet. If you graduate from MIT, work at a Fortune 500 company, and are from India or China, your pathway for residency is about a 12-year wait. Most people don’t know that.”
Challa worked at a downtown law firm before going out on her own. “I wanted space for supporting lots of pro bono work,” she says. “Along with corporate clients, I help noncitizen victims of domestic violence, struggling families and Afghan refugees. I’m sure Ukrainians will need our help, too. Hopefully more lawyers can step in and help.”
Challa Law Group employs 10 people, a size ideal for Challa to keep her hands in everything.
“These aren’t just forms — these are people’s lives, children’s lives,” she says. “If we do something wrong, they will have to leave the country. Their entire lives will be disrupted. We can never lose sight of our purpose or our passion.”
Many long-term legal residents, not yet citizens, live in constant fear of being denied citizenship and having to uproot their family and start over. “It’s a stressful way to live,” Challa says.
At the start of the pandemic, immigration bans led to increased legal complications. Non-natives who had traveled to their home countries for business or personal visits became stuck, unable to return to their children in the U.S. Challa’s office received so many calls, they began hosting weekly webinars for free.
“We continue to host immigration webinars every Wednesday,” Challa says. “People from all over the world have participated, and we’re really hoping to give clarity and equip them with the tools they need.”
Challa says her clients inspire her to work hard and help put her life into perspective.
“They didn’t let their challenges define them or make them bitter,” she says. “Instead, they were resilient and rose above. They were able to see the light.”
Challa says those are the very traits that make the ideal American. “People forget we are a country of immigrants,” she says. “Throughout history, Americans have been resistant to nationalities different from their own. But those immigrants didn’t come in and change the fabric of the United States, they only enriched it and made it more colorful.”
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