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June 15, 2012
 

U.S. Will Give Immunity to Some Young Illegal Migrants

<h6 class="byline">By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS</h6>

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives. The election-year initiative addresses a top priority of an influential Latino electorate that has been vocal in its opposition to administration deportation policies.       

 

The policy change, described to The Associated Press by two senior administration officials, will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It also bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who have attended college or served in the military.       

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was to announce the new policy Friday, one week before President Barack Obama plans to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' annual conference in Orlando, Fla. Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak to the group on Thursday.

       

Obama planned to discuss the new policy Friday afternoon from the White House Rose Garden.       

Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be immune from deportation if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED, or served in the military. They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed. The officials who described the plan spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it in advance of the official announcement.       

The policy will not lead toward citizenship but will remove the threat of deportation and grant the ability to work legally, leaving eligible immigrants able to remain in the United States for extended periods. It tracks closely to a proposal offered by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as an alternative to the DREAM Act.       

 

"Many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways," Napolitano wrote in a memorandum describing the administration's action. "Prosecutorial discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."       

The extraordinary move comes in an election year in which the Hispanic vote could be critical in swing states like Colorado, Nevada and Florida. While Obama enjoys support from a majority of Hispanic voters, Latino enthusiasm for the president has been tempered by the slow economic recovery, his inability to win congressional support for a broad overhaul of immigration laws and by his administration's aggressive deportation policy. Activists opposing his deportation policies last week mounted a hunger strike at an Obama campaign office in Denver, and other protests were planned for this weekend.       

 

The change is likely to cause an outcry from congressional Republicans, who are sure to perceive Obama's actions as an end run around them. Republicans already have complained that previous administration uses of prosecutorial discretion in deportations amount to back-door amnesty. Romney and many Republican lawmakers want tighter border security measures before considering changes in immigration law. Romney opposes offering legal status to illegal immigrants who attend college but has said he would do so for those who serve in the armed forces.       

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month found Obama leading Romney among Hispanic voters 61 percent to 27 percent. But his administration's deportation policies have come under fire, and Latino leaders have raised the subject in private meetings with the president. In 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 396,906 people and is expected to deport about 400,000 this year.       

 

A December poll by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that 59 percent of Latinos disapproved of the president's handling of deportations.       

The changes come a year after the administration announced plans to focus on deporting serious criminals, immigrants who pose threats to public safety and national security, and serious immigration law violators.       

One of the officials said the latest policy change is just another step in the administration's evolving approach to immigration.       

Under the plan, immigrants whose deportation cases are pending in immigration court will have to prove their eligibility for a reprieve to ICE, which will begin dealing with such cases in 60 days. Any immigrant who already has a deportation order and those who never have been encountered by immigration authorities will deal with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.       

The exact details of how the program will work, including how much immigrants will have to pay to apply and what proof they will need, still are being worked out.       

 

In making it harder to deport, the Obama administration is in essence employing the same eligibility requirements spelled out in the proposed DREAM Act.       

The administration officials stopped short of calling the change an administrative DREAM Act — the name is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — but the qualifications meet those laid out in a 2010 version that failed in the Senate after passing in the House. They said the DREAM Act, in some form, and comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system remained an administration priority.       

Illegal immigrant children won't be eligible to apply for the deportation waiver until they turn 16, but the officials said younger children won't be deported either.       

 

Last year, Napolitano announced plans to review about 300,000 pending deportation cases and indefinitely suspend those that didn't meet department priorities. So far, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reviewed more than 232,000 cases and decided to stop working on about 20,000. About 4,000 of those 20,000 have opted to keep fighting in court to stay in the United States legally. For the people who opted to close their cases, work permits are not guaranteed.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin...-immigration.html?hp

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Obama pulling off an "Jagdeo".  The economy is in shambles, unemployment remains high, Obamacare might be struck down, Obama is out of ideas, so he pulled off a Jagdeo Chinese visa scam, rule by decree.

 

Under Obama, the US is heading down the path of Third-Worldism.

 

I have to admit though, it's a cheap but wutlissly smart stunt.  Romney scratching his head on this one.

FM
Obama did nothing about the dream act during the his term. He sat on it while kids who came here as 2 year olds were being deported in handcuffs to countries they had no memory of. I give little credence to these political stunts. Healthcare is in a worse shape and getting worse. The whole damm country falling apart.
TI
Originally Posted by TI:
Obama did nothing about the dream act during the his term. He sat on it while kids who came here as 2 year olds were being deported in handcuffs to countries they had no memory of. I give little credence to these political stunts. Healthcare is in a worse shape and getting worse. The whole damm country falling apart.

Doesn't matter.  You see, Obama says he is waiting on Congress to send the bill for over a year.  Today the Hispanics are dancing in the streets and they don't care about the fact-base.  In the end, this is what will play.

 

Obama definitely pulled this one off, grant illegals some status, get the Hispanic vote and let the 25 mil unemployed scrunge.  Who you think will go out and vote?  Good there is term limits cuz in 25 years if Obama is still there, he will be an elder statesman like Mugade and US a dysfunctional socialist state like Zimbabwe.

FM

One October surprise came early.

 

The October surprise is when, late in the Presidential election campaign, some event occurs that enhances the chances of one candidate or the other. For example McCain's flub on the economy in the aftermath of the Lehman collapse was an October surprise and helped Obama.

 

Let's say Osama bin Laden was killed in October 2012, Obama would have gotten a tremendous bounce.

 

Also if say unemployment tracks 8.0% in June, 7.8% in July, 7.6% in August, you can say that the economic trajectory as far as unemployment goes would be a nice October surprise for Obama.

 

Or a major scandal of sorts involving Obama or Romney. You get my drift.......

 

In the winter it was the GOP Candidates pummeling each other. In early Spring it was the Republican outrage at contraception, etc. that drove women, especially the WalMart moms - the single women who are mothers - into the Democratic side. Last month it was Obama coming out in support for gay marriage. Bang! there goes the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Trans-gender) crowd in Obama's direction. Now this immigration announcement will see Latinos staying strong for Obama.

 

It's the demographics, stupid. Chicago is making sure the coalition for Obama in 2008 stay strong. Look out next for something for the youths - like say, student loans which cannot now be written off in bankruptcy,  will now a new look. You never can tell.

 

Obama will never get the red-blooded Republicans, Appalachia, and the old white men. That's about 35% of the electorate. Maybe 30% will be the number for Romney because that 5% may not like his Evangelical creds. Obama will get the Democratic base - the question is how much of this 40% of the voters will stay strong. It is this crowd that Obama wants to re-energize and get to the polls. Maybe 5% stay away, so he gets 35%. The other 25% is the vaunted Independents (Dems base = 40% and GOP base = 35% and Indie = 25%). That's the battleground.

 

The race for 270 is on - 270 as in 270 Electoral College votes. The GOP Governors with some measures to suppress traditional Democratic voters may deprive Obama of about 2% of his now 35%. So he ends up with 33%. So Romney has 30% and Obama has 33% under this scenario for their respective bases.

 

Kari

Obama is a cheap trickster.  The night before he scalped Osama he making jokes at the Washington Press Club gig.  Just on Thursday Obama looked confused and out of touch, then he spring this shit and got Romney scratching his balls and Rubio his foot.

 

Biggest surprise will come "if" he wins and drop the socialist doctrine on us and feed the US to China as he fed our friend Egypt to the Islamist.

 

Obama is a domestic and foreign policy disaster, but populous 3rd-world politics catered to like minded voters will have him deliver the US to the brink of 3rd-Worldism.  Lucky for term limits.  We may have to suffer through four more years of mediocrity and decline.

 

The US is great, we withstood Osama, we'll withstand Obama.

FM

One's dictum betrays a mindset. Now let's forget Obama and Romney for a moment and look for the import of your statements.

 

I offer that your emotive content in first speaking of a "third world", where the Caucasian white West is the first, the Central Government East Europe is the second, and us Asia-Africa-Latin America is third, in some pecking order, cast us Guyanese in the diaspora as lesser humans.

 

When you condemn all third world people and their thinking, and culture and forms of government, you do us a disfavor. Maybe you are ashamed of your own skin.

 

So let's stop putting labels on people and stop speculating that the sky will be red from tomorrow. You sound like a jackass. Educate yourself! And stop demeaning yourself!

Kari

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