Obama To Stop Deporting And Grant Work Permits For Younger Illegals

[tt11758]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/obama-immigration-order-deportation-dream-act_n_1599658.html?1339767702&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3&pLid=170060

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger undocumented 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 without documents 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.

Under the administration plan, undocumented 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.

"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 undocumented 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.

Undocumented 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.

WTF?!?  He can't get the Nightmare (Dream Act) passed by Congress so the bastard just extends a middle finger and makes a decree?  Who the f..k does he think he is, the goddamn KING?!?

One more case of screwing the productive to get the votes of people who shouldn't f....k be here in the first place. 

God this pisses me off!!   

[crusader rabbit]

Who needs a congressional impediment when you can just rule by fiat.  The Constitution be damned, just do it.

Will we survive until we can vote this turd out of office?

[tombogan03884]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/obama-immigration-order-deportation-dream-act_n_1599658.html?1339767702&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3&pLid=170060


WTF?!?  He can't get the Nightmare (Dream Act) passed by Congress so the bastard just extends a middle finger and makes a decree? Who the f..k does he think he is, the goddamn KING?!?

One more case of screwing the productive to get the votes of people who shouldn't f....k be here in the first place.  

God this pisses me off!!  

Yes.
One of the French ones.

[Timothy]

Is this even remotely legal?  Where the heck is the opposition?

[tombogan03884]

Is this even remotely legal? Where the heck is the opposition?

Even the lap dog media are starting to ask questions.
Of course questioning "The Won" in any way is "Heckling".

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/watch-live-obama-explains-decision-legalize-young-illegal-165949610.html

Obama explains new immigration plan, while heckled by reporter in Rose Garden

In a speech this afternoon in the Rose Garden, President Barack Obama explained his administration's decision to allow as many as 800,000 young illegal immigrants to apply for temporary legal status and work permits.

Neil Munro, a reporter from the Daily Caller, interrupted the president twice, asking him to defend his statement that the move is the "right thing" for the country. Obama talked over the reporter but later in the speech addressed him, again asserting that the immigration decision is the right one. Munroe again interrupted Obama. "I didn't ask for an argument," the president said sharply, ending the unusual exchange.
Obama went on with his speech. "They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one--on paper," he said of the young illegal immigrants who will be affected by his plan. The sweeping proposal allows immigrants without criminal records who are under 30 years old, entered the country as children, have graduated from a U.S. high school and can prove they've lived in the country for five consecutive years to apply for temporary legal status and then two-year, renewable work permits. It does not provide them a path to citizenship. In his speech, Obama stressed that the move is "not amnesty," and he thinks Congress should still pass a broader legalization bill.

The change could have big political implications. President Obama has faced criticism from the crucial Hispanic electorate for ramping up deportations under his tenure and for failing to deliver on his campaign promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Advocates and advisers worried that even though Obama enjoyed a big lead over Romney among Latino voters, a lack of enthusiasm could keep many of them home in key swing states like Nevada, Colorado, and Florida on Election Day. But his announcement is likely to generate interest among many Latinos: 87 percent of registered Latino voters said in a Latino Decisions poll that they support legalizing young immigrants.

Young people who were brought into the country illegally or overstayed their visas as children are commonly called "Dreamers," referencing the title of a decade-old bill that would have given them a path to citizenship if they joined the military or attended college. The Dream Act passed the House nearly two years ago, but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate. Opponents of the bill have argued that it would encourage more people to enter the country illegally. But supporters say it helps those who were brought up as Americans and whose lack of status is not their own fault become full members of society.

During the primary, Mitt Romney said he would veto the Dream Act, but in recent weeks he has seemed open to a proposal by Sen. Marco Rubio to grant Dreamers work permits but not a path to citizenship.

Romney adviser Kevin Madden said on MSNBC that the move is "political" and that Romney will stay focused on the economy. It's telling that the Romney team--eager not to alienate Latino voters--isn't attacking Obama on the substance of the move, but only the process and motivations behind it.

Many Congressional Republicans are also criticizing the move as an executive overreach. "This decision avoids dealing with Congress and the American people instead of fixing a broken immigration system once and for all," wrote Sen. Lindsay Graham, one of the few Congressional Republicans who supports immigration reform. "President Obama's decision to grant amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants is a breach of faith with the American people," Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a vocal illegal immigration opponent, said.

In the past, Obama has said he doesn't have the power to stop the deportation of Dreamers. "There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President," Obama told one Dreamer who asked him why he couldn't halt young people's deportations in March of 2011.

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Is this even remotely legal?  Where the heck is the opposition?

NO!!!

Either afraid to be labeled racist and obstructionist in this election season, or looking down the barrel of the armed Black Panthers his private security staff

[Pathfinder]

NO!!!

Either afraid to be labeled racist and obstructionist in this election season, or looking down the barrel of the armed Black Panthers his private security staff

Rep. King has apparently been successful with suing for this in the past, or so he says that he stopped Vilsack in Iowa from acting like some petty potentate. We'll see if King's lawsuit can stop the reality tho.

[tombogan03884]

Rep. King has apparently been successful with suing for this in the past, or so he says that he stopped Vilsack in Iowa from acting like some petty potentate. We'll see if King's lawsuit can stop the reality tho.

I bet it never gets to court till after the election.

[Pathfinder]

I bet it never gets to court till after the election.

As I posted in another thread on this topic, my guess is that even if King is successful, bho and his czars will just implement it anyhow and make us prove he didn't. It's not like he heasn't thumbed his nose at us continually for the last 3.5 years.

Besides, this is a win-win for bho. He has energized his base a little with the whole Dream Act/amnesty stuff, and even if overturned, he will have bought off a sizeable chunk of the hispanic vote, especially the younger ones.

Where is bho's downside? He pissed off the Tea Partiers? Big whup to him, they were already pissed off. By the election there will be 42 more of these actions and this one will be forgotten - except by the young hispanics and especially the young illegals.

[tombogan03884]

As I posted in another thread on this topic, my guess is that even if King is successful, bho and his czars will just implement it anyhow and make us prove he didn't. It's not like he heasn't thumbed his nose at us continually for the last 3.5 years.

Besides, this is a win-win for bho. He has energized his base a little with the whole Dream Act/amnesty stuff, and even if overturned, he will have bought off a sizeable chunk of the hispanic vote, especially the younger ones.

Where is bho's downside? He pissed off the Tea Partiers? Big whup to him, they were already pissed off. By the election there will be 42 more of these actions and this one will be forgotten - except by the young hispanics and especially the young illegals.

Oh shut up about that boring politics stuff, it's time for "Dancing with the Stars".