Many people in the United States, especially immigrants, were overjoyed when President Barack Obama created a policy that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and obtain work permits. This policy was called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allowed people who came to the United States illegally as children to apply for protection from any deportation proceedings for two years. In addition, if applicants met certain requirements, they would be eligible for a work permit.
In June 2012, President Obama expanded this program by allowing parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to also be eligible for protection from removal proceedings and obtain a work permit. This policy is called the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). Recently, however, a Texas court came out with a decision stating that DAPA is unconstitutional. As a result, DAPA is no longer being implemented at this time.
Now, more than two years after DACA�s implementation, President Obama has decided to expand it even further. Dream Act � Finally Expanded: A blog around President Obama�s latest actions to protect many of the illegal immigrants in America.
So President Obama has finally taken action to protect many of the illegal immigrants in America. The president has announced that he will allow young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children to stay here and apply for work permits, sparing them from deportation and providing a degree of legitimacy.
The policy, which will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of discovery and deportation, will change their lives in concrete ways. Most important, it will allow many of them to come out of hiding and fully participate in their communities without fear of arrest and deportation. They will also be able to get driver�s licenses, make legal earnings, and pay taxes.
This is a fight that we have been fighting for a long time now. In fact we were one step away from winning in 2010 when the Dream Act passed the House but was defeated by the Senate. Now this new policy is even better than passing the Dream Act because it does not require Congress to pass any laws or for them to approve anything. It is just an executive order that can begin right away and it only involves immigration authorities doing their jobs a little differently. However, this policy change is not permanent unless a law is passed so we must continue our fight to pass immigration reform with a path
I�ve often thought about how the United States has handled its immigration policies. For the most part, the country has been relatively lenient towards those who have not followed the proper procedures in coming to the states.
However, times are changing. With the current economic recession and a generally weak job market, many Americans are blaming immigrants for taking work away from them by working for lower wages and not paying taxes.
It is for this reason that I think that President Obama�s recent executive action expanding on his 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is timely and appropriate.
I�ve written several times about DACA in the past, including here and here. The policy allows those who have come to the United States illegally as children, who have lived in America continuously since 2007, and who meet a variety of other criteria to be protected from deportation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Immigrants who qualify under DACA are issued a work permit that allows them to legally work in America. Additionally, they do not accrue time towards being considered illegally present if they leave America while protected under DACA.�
While the Dream Act is still not passed, President Obama has expanded his support for undocumented students and workers. With this new announcement, he has already granted 2 million people, who came to America as children, a temporary reprieve from deportation and the ability to obtain a work permit. All USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) has to do is approve these applications.
The Dream Act is a bipartisan bill that would provide permanent resident status to immigrants if they meet certain requirements:
Have been brought to the U.S. as children;
Are currently under the age of 35;
Graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a GED;
Have been in the country for at least five continuous years prior to the bill’s enactment;
Have no criminal history;
And have good moral character.
If passed, it will make children of illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities as well as federal financial aid programs such as Pell Grants.
For many years now, the United States has been forced to live by one of its darkest laws. The law is called the Dream Act, and it says that all young illegal immigrants who graduate from High School must be deported. It has been a shameful law for all Americans, but especially for the children it affects. These kids are legal citizens in every way but one; they were born on foreign soil. They grew up here, went to school here, and they love America just as much as you or I do.
The Dream Act is one of the biggest political issues facing us today. For anyone who believes in freedom and justice, there is no issue more important than this one. This is about basic human rights: do we have a right to live in our own home? Do we have a right to keep our family together? Or are we simply illegal aliens who must be thrown out at any time?
The Dream Act was first proposed in 2001 by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL). It was a bipartisan effort to protect immigrant children from being deported. However, after 9/11, Congress passed several laws which made it harder for undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. These laws included the REAL ID
In June 2012, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which granted work permits and temporary deportation relief to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as young children.
This policy, known as the DREAM Act, was expanded by President Obama on November 20th, 2014. This expansion will allow an estimated 300,000 more individuals to meet the requirements of DACA. Additionally, it will allow those currently enrolled in DACA to renew their status and work permit for three years instead of two. Finally, the new policy will allow parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have been in the country since before January 1st, 2010 to apply for similar protection from deportation and work permits if they pass background checks and pay fees.
The new policy was not welcomed by all citizens. In fact, many protesters gathered outside the White House immediately after President Obama announced his executive action on immigration reform. Many believed that President Obama overstepped his constitutional authority by taking executive action without first obtaining approval from Congress.
On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced a major executive action on immigration. The centerpiece of this action is the extension of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to many more individuals and the creation of a new program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The executive action also expands the number of people who qualify for DACA and increases the period for which DACA and DAPA are granted and work permits issued.
What does this mean for you?
The actions announced by President Obama on November 20, 2014 do not create new laws. They only help to enforce existing laws more equally. These actions will be implemented by U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) and other agencies over the next several months.
DACA: The Facts
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is an exercise of prosecutorial discretion by the Department of Homeland Security that makes it possible for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to apply to USCIS to be considered for deferred action. If approved, these individuals would receive deferred action and an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which allows them to legally live and work in the United States.
The original 2012 DACA guidelines limited eligibility to people
