First immigrants OK'd for deportation deferral program
First approvals of deportation deferral program come just two months before presidential election in which Hispanic vote almost certain to prove pivotal
(AP) WASHINGTON — Less than two months before a presidential election in which both parties are fighting for the key Hispanic vote, the Obama administration has approved the first wave of applications from young illegal immigrants hoping to avoid deportation and get a work permit.
The Homeland Security Department is notifying a small group of people this week that they have been approved to stay in the country for two years as part of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The first approvals come just three weeks after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started accepting applications for the program Mr. Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano first announced June 15.
In an internal document obtained by The Associated Press, the government had estimated previously that it could take months for each application to be reviewed and approved. So far, about 72,000 people have applied to avoid deportation.
"Following a thorough, individualized case review, USCIS has now begun notifying individuals of the determination on their deferral requests," DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said in a statement Tuesday.
DHS said background checks, including fingerprinting, are being conducted on each immigrant before an application can be approved. The average wait time for approval is expected to be about four months to six months.
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Most applications for immigration benefits take several months for USCIS to process. In certain circumstances, people can pay extra fees to speed up the process. There currently is no such option for deferred action applications.
To be eligible for deferred deportation, applicants must have come to the U.S. before they turned 16, be 30 or younger, be high school graduates or in college, or have served in the military. The immigrants could not have a serious criminal record. Successful applicants can avoid deportation for up to two years and get a work permit.
Applicants must pay a $465 paperwork fee that is expected to cover the cost of processing the work permit and fingerprint collection. Homeland Security has estimated that as many as 1.04 million immigrants could apply to avoid being deported in the program's first year, with about 890,000 being immediately eligible. According to the department document, it could cost between $467 million and $585 million to process applications in the first two years of the program, with revenues from fees estimated at $484 million. That means the cost to the government could range from a gain of $17 million to a loss of more than $101 million.
The policy change came just months before what is shaping up to be a tight presidential election. Wooing Hispanic voters has been considered key to helping Mr. Obama win a second term.
The plan to halt deportations for as many as 1.7 million illegal immigrants closely mirrors the failed DREAM Act, a bill that would have provided a path to legalization for many of the same immigrants expected to benefit from the government's deferred action policy. The new policy does not provide legal status for the immigrants.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has not said what he would do with the Obama policy if he is elected. He has previously pledged to veto the DREAM Act should it cross his desk. DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors.
Republicans have uniformly criticized Mr. Obama's policy, as well as previous DHS decisions to stop deporting many illegal immigrants who do not have criminal records or otherwise pose no threat to national security or public safety.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has derided the policy as "backdoor amnesty."
"It's astounding that the president's administration can move so quickly to grant work authorization to illegal immigrants yet his jobs council hasn't met in over eight months to find solutions to put unemployed Americans back to work," Smith said Tuesday. "Such a quick turnaround for these amnesty applications raises serious concerns about fraud and a lack of thorough background checks. President Obama and his administration continue to put illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of the American people."
Last month, a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sued the department in federal court in Dallas, accusing the administration of violating federal law and forcing ICE employees to break the law by not arresting certain illegal immigrants. Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton were named as defendants.
An informal adviser to Romney on immigration, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, filed the suit on behalf of the agents.
"It places ICE agents in an untenable position where their political superiors are ordering them to violate federal law," Kobach said at the time. "If they follow federal law, they will be disciplined by their superiors."
On Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., sent a letter to Morton questioning the new policy and how it is being implemented. He cited reports of immigration officers being threatened with punishment for trying to enforce immigration laws, an allegation outlined in Kobach's suit.
"The speed at which the deferrals are being granted continues to raise severe concerns about fraud and the administration's ability to verify items like age of entry, educational status and even current age," Sessions said. "But the bigger issue is that the administration has effectively nullified existing federal law with the stroke of a pen. Moreover, it is a pure fiction that its non-enforcement policy is limited to those theoretically eligible for DREAM."
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-As a big environmentalist, I know that when a third world person
comes to the U.S. they adopt a typical U.S. wasteful polluting
lifestyle. We in the U.S. need to change our way of living, but should not increase our population which simply causes more of this.
-Latinos ARE NOT dying of starvation. Sure they want a better
lifestyle, so do I. If we in the U.S. want to help folks who are in
danger of DYING, they are not in Central/South America. Having
traveled through 21 countries in the past 4 years, I can say for a
fact, that there are others who WILL DIE without help. We could ship upwards of hundreds of millions here to save them. Why does no
one speak of them?? Because they are in Africa and Asia, do they not
count?
-I'm a retired Federal law enforcement officer. How can any administration blatantly allow illegals to remain here. Sure, many of
them work, but they also have access to FREE health care in our
ER's; I must pay for this (and do spend thousands each year for my
Govt health insurance). Yes, we do give illegals FREE health care in
our ER's. Don't believe me? Go ask any nurse or doctor in an ER.If I
don't pay, they WILL take part of my retirement paycheck
-I met my wife in Thailand, she is Thai. I waited 11 1/2 months to
obtain permission to bring her to the U.S. to get married, and it
cost me thousands of dollars. And yet this article says illegals
can essentially do it for under $500. Again, legitimate people must
pay extra to get what illegals get free or cheaply.
-The illegals that are able to obtain the above benefits can, in the future, petition to get their relatives here.
-Many illegals can obtain driver's licenses and food stamps.
Sorry, but our system is severely broken, and we have largely done it
to ourselves. Republicans AND Democrats are both to blame.
Personally, I have a tough time living on my U.S. Govt retirement money, and now live in a third world country (legally). Try going to most third world countries and asking for free handouts. You will be jailed and/or deported.
Very well put.
Amen
Not because you can do a better job.
It's because they can pay you less money.
Not that you work harder you will work for peanuts say...
Next time your out take a look, Latino's are in the stores, banks, fast food, and gas stations. Those are what I see and 10 years ago that was not the case. If you want to be proud of your country go back home and take care of it. South America has most of our Manufacturing jobs as it is.
America has giant magnetism to people who are drawn here for public programs, that Obama czars have compromised welfare essentially drafted for citizens and lawful immigrants. These illegal entries that skirt our laws know more about our benefit laws than a good many U.S. citizens?This has especially drained the treasury of states run mainly by liberal-Marxist assemblies as California, Nevada, and New York with bloated populations of illegal aliens. Over past decades our nation has been under assault by the poverty of other countries, bringing their unborn babies here to take advantage of a passionate country that in this present climate can no longer afford to feed the world, or offer uncompensated health care. Even more significant is the onslaught of parents and children that lawfully enter our country through Chain Migration.
These hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars should be spent on the legal population, not in harboring foreign nations that continually challenge our laws and succeed with Liberal interpretation of our laws in the courts. Neither Obama nor Romney will enforce immigration laws, but the thorough saturation of TEA PARTY legislators into the Republican Party will have great influence and empowerment to propel the Senate and House into fighting against the Socialistic conspiracy or the GOP elitists who want to keep things as they are?
Here are a few of the issues that can be altered by the TEA PARTY LEADERSHIP:
1. The TEA PARTY can force a vote on the 'Legal Workforce Act' (E-Verify) and enact it as mandatory in every business nationwide. Those who feel they are not accountable will be looking at hefty fines, loss of assets and even prison. All those who ignore the I-9 audits in not implementing the computer to detect illegal aliens in the workplace will be sanctioned?
2. The TEA PARTY will force a vote on the 'Birthright Citizenship Act' concluding once and for all, that pregnant women can no longer gain citizenship through a misguided loophole for a child, just by slipping past Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) at the border or over staying a visa, leading ultimately to yet another 'Blanket Amnesty'. What about American teenagers, who have been pushed out of jobs that were the monopoly for our kids a couple of decades back?
Neither major political party wants a true end to illegal immigration, but the TEA PARTY will insure that citizens and lawful immigrants always get first priority—not pandering to foreign nationals.
ATTN: The TEA PARTY will be safeguarding the nationwide election procedure, watching for none citizens voting in November.
ICE Council president Chris Crane, filed suit against DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton seeking an injunction against the Napolitano Directive of June 15, 2012.
Sign the petition at petitions.iceunion.org demanding that ICE enforce the laws.
Isn't it amazing how Obama has revelations like this, and gay marriage, just in time for an election?