Kathleen C Walker

/Home/Immigration Lawyers: El Paso TX

Immigration and International Trade

Cox Smith is dedicated to helping clients take advantage of global business opportunities. We have a full understanding of language and culture that is essential to making business and legal relationships work. And although we have internal capabilities that relate to many aspects of international business (from dispute resolution and enforcement of judgments, to energy and real estate transactions), our particular strengths involve counseling on immigration law, intellectual property, corporate transactional and tax issues.

Local Resources & Global Reach

Cox Smith has offices in five major cities across Texas, including McAllen and El Paso. Our proximity to the U.S./Mexico border gives us on-the-ground experience in consular processing, cross-border, and admissions related issues. Most of our lawyers on our immigration and international trade law team, as well as several other firm attorneys, are fluent in Spanish. We assist corporate and individual clients all over the U.S. and from around the world with U.S. immigration and nationality law, providing services ranging from securing employment-based temporary and permanent visas, to related tax and import/export controls compliance. We also counsel international clients who are interested in expanding into the U.S. by establishing a permanent presence here. Our clients represent a wide spectrum of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, commercial real estate, commercial agriculture, biotech, professional sports teams and the entertainment sectors.

Immigration & Nationality Law

Immigration law and procedure is a vast compilation of interpretative memoranda and impromptu policy interpretations. Cox Smith’s immigration attorneys have experience helping clients navigate the complex and oftentimes confusing regulations and statutes related to immigration and nationality law. Cox Smith is committed to helping its clients compete globally by reducing immigrant visa backlogs, providing a path to legal permanent status for qualifying workers in the U.S. without status, improving due process protections for immigrants, and increasing legal avenues for skilled professionals to provide needed services in the U.S. Our experience includes both business and family immigration matters, worksite enforcement, waivers, naturalization, regional center programs, investors, removal, asylum, database errors, WHTI, ESTA, SENTRI and NEXUS.

Our attorneys have earned a national reputation for excellence in immigration and international trade law, while advocating at local, state, and federal levels for comprehensive immigration reform, improvement of national border security infrastructure and procedures, consular processing and admission procedures for foreign nationals, and improvements in the provision of pro bono immigration services and detention standards.

Kathleen Campbell Walker
Cox Smith Matthews Inc
221 N Kansas St #2000
El Paso TX 79901
Tel: 915 541-9360
Fax: 915 541-9399
E-mail: kwalker@coxsmith.com

Kathleen Walker is internationally recognized for her experience handling the complex issues related to business immigration, consular processing, admissibility and immigration security issues. In addition to her reputation for excellence in her chosen field of immigration and nationality law, she has also advocated at local, state, and federal levels for comprehensive immigration reform, the improvement of national border security infrastructure and procedures, consular processing and admission procedures for foreign nationals, and improvement in the provision of pro bono immigration services and detention standards. Her immigration law practice primarily focuses on business and family-based immigration, consular processing, employer sanctions/worksite enforcement, immigration audits, security checks, waivers, admissibility, and citizenship and naturalization. Her clients include hospitals and other healthcare providers, major global manufacturing and energy companies, defense contractors, construction companies, real estate and finance firms, cities, hospitality and hospitality service companies, agricultural businesses, professional employer organizations, educational institutions, convenience store businesses, food service franchisees, investors and entrepreneurs, ranches, equestrians, performing artists, families, and individuals.

As a result of her experience with immigration and cross-border issues and trends, Kathleen has been regularly called upon to provide testimony before Congress as well as the Texas House and Senate. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, and is frequently interviewed by the media for her perspective on immigration issues.

Kathleen was the national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in 2007-08, and prior general counsel to AILA and Chair of the AILA National Customs and Border Protection Liaison (CBP) Committee from 2009-10. In 2010, she received the National AILA Service Excellence Award for her leadership. Board certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, she was selected to serve on the Council of Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy, which was chaired by former Governor Jeb Bush and Thomas F. (Mack) McLarty, and was one of the 30 women recognized in the "Extraordinary Women in Texas Law" publication of Texas Lawyer, 2008. In 2007, she was named as one of five "Go-To" lawyers in Texas in immigration law by Texas Lawyer. That same year she was chosen as one of the Top 50 women lawyers in the state as well as among the Top 50 lawyers in the Central and West Texas region in Texas Monthly’s Super Lawyer edition. She has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America for immigration and nationality law since the category was included in the publication (20 years now). In addition, she is listed in both the Chambers USA (Band One) and Chambers Global publications. In 2008, she was the only attorney from Texas recognized as one of 17 most highly regarded lawyers globally in the International Who's Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers publication.