Obama Eyes Major Immigration Move

Ianus · 07-25-2014, 05:36 AM

http://time.com/3028637/obama-eyes-m...igration-move/

Quote:

The President may be preparing to provide temporary legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants

When President Obama issues executive orders on immigration in coming weeks, pro-reform activists are expecting something dramatic: temporary relief from deportation and work authorization for perhaps several million undocumented immigrants. If the activists are right, the sweeping move would upend a contentious policy fight and carry broad political consequences.

The activists met privately with the President and his aides June 30 at the White House, and say in that meeting Obama suggested he will act before the November midterm elections. They hope his decision will offer relief to a significant percentage of the estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. “He seems resolute that he’s going to go big and go soon,” says Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-reform group America’s Voice.

Exactly what Obama plans to do is a closely held secret. But following the meeting with the activists, Obama declared his intention to use his executive authority to reform parts of a broken immigration system that has cleaved families and hobbled the economy. After being informed by Speaker John Boehner that the Republican-controlled House would not vote on a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration law this year, the President announced in a fiery speech that he was preparing “to do what Congress refuses to do, and fix as much of our immigration system as we can.”

Obama has been cautious about preempting Congress. But its failure to act has changed his thinking. The recent meeting “was really the first time we had heard from the administration that they are looking at” expanding a program to provide temporary relief from deportations and work authorization for undocumented immigrants, says Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

The White House won’t comment on how many undocumented immigrants could be affected. “I don’t want to put a number on it,” says a senior White House official, who says Obama’s timeline to act before the mid-term elections remains in place.

Obama has a broad menu of options at his disposal, but there are two major sets of changes he can order. The first is to provide affirmative relief from deportation to one or more groups of people. Under this mechanism, individuals identified as “low-priority” threats can come forward to seek temporary protection from deportation and work authorization. In 2012, the administration created a program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), that allowed eligible young unauthorized immigrants to apply for a two-year reprieve from deportation and a work permit.

The most aggressive option in this category would be expanding deferred action to anyone who could have gained legal status under the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate in June 2013. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis, the Senate bill would have covered up to 8 million undocumented immigrants. It is unlikely that Obama goes that far. But even more modest steps could provide relief to a population numbering in the seven figures. “You can get to big numbers very quickly,” says Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

One plausible option would be to expand DACA to include some family members of those already eligible. Says a Congressional aide: “While there are several options to provide temporary deportation relief, we expect an expansion of the DACA program to other groups of individuals to be the most clear opportunity.”

It’s hard to pin down how many people this would cover; it would depend on how the administration crafts the order. But the numbers are substantial. According to the CBO, there are an estimated 4.7 million undocumented parents with a minor child living in the U.S., and 3.8 million whose children are citizens. Around 1.5 million undocumented immigrants are married to a U.S. citizen or lawful resident, but have been unable to gain legal status themselves.

Obama could also decide to grant protections for specific employment categories, such as the 1 million or so undocumented immigrants working in the agricultural sector, or to ease the visa restrictions hindering the recruitment of high-skilled foreign workers to Silicon Valley. Either move would please centrist and conservative business lobbies, who have joined with the left to press for comprehensive reform, and might help temper the blowback.

The second bucket of changes Obama is considering are more modest enforcement reforms. Jeh Johnson, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, is deep into a review of the administration’s enforcement practices, and it is likely Obama will order some changes to immigration enforcement priorities. But if these tweaks are the extent of the changes, it would be a blow to activists expecting more. “That’s crumbs off the table compared to the meal we’d be expecting,” says Sharry.

Until now, Obama has frustrated immigration-reform activists by insisting he has little latitude to fix a broken system on his own. To a large extent, he’s right. Any relief the President provides would be fleeting; it’s up to Congress to find a permanent solution by rewriting the law. Deferring deportations does not confer a green card. It only offers a temporary fix.

But legal experts say Obama does have the authority to take the kinds of executive action he is thought to be considering. “As a purely legal matter, the President does have wide discretion when it comes to immigration,” says Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell University Law School. “Just as DACA was within the purview of the president’s executive authority on immigration, so too would expanding DACA fall within the president’s inherent immigration authority.” According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, categorical grants of affirmative relief to non-citizens have been made 21 times since 1976, by six different presidents.

Even if Obama is on firm footing from a legal standpoint, he would be wading into political quicksand. Republicans would assail him for extending mass “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants at a moment when the southern border faces an unresolved child-migration crisis. Immigration would become a signal topic in the fall elections, and given that Obama’s handling of the issue has slipped to just 31%, that wouldn’t necessarily favor the President’s party. It would likely damage vulnerable Democratic incumbents in red states, including several whose re-election could determine control of the Senate. And Congress’s incipient failure to reach an agreement on an emergency supplemental bill to address the border crisis muddies the waters even further.

At the same time, Obama will be pilloried by Republicans no matter what he does. Despite the short-term political consequences, in the long run a bold stroke could help cement the Democratic Party’s ties with the vital and fast-growing Hispanic voting bloc. And it would be a legacy for Obama, a cautious chief executive whose presidency has largely been shaped by events outside his control. In the case of immigration, he has the capacity to ease the pain felt by millions with the stroke of a pen.

“There are two ways this could go,” says Fitz of the Center for American Progress. Obama will be remembered as either “the deporter-in-chief, or the great emancipator. Those are the two potential legacies.”

Sorrybrah · 07-25-2014, 09:27 AM

I'm hoping the next "daca" would be for people qualified for the failed CIR bill.

VeryNicePerson1 · 07-25-2014, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorrybrah

I'm hoping the next "daca" would be for people qualified for the failed CIR bill.

Yea, that is actually one of the big things mentioned that Obama may use as a guideline on a broad DACA program.

Lateralus · 07-25-2014, 12:38 PM

If it will include parents of those who have already been granted DACA it would be awesome. Also, to those people who missed out on the 2012 executive action.

IamAman · 07-25-2014, 01:03 PM

We're getting a lot of positive chatter on this. keep our paws crossed.

VeryNicePerson1 · 07-25-2014, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lateralus

If it will include parents of those who have already been granted DACA it would be awesome. Also, to those people who missed out on the 2012 executive action.

I have a feeling it won't be phases or groups anymore.

It may probably be one broad announcement, with possibly 1 huge mega form and you have to fill out areas that pertain to your individual situation, and then you supplement that with the proofs that is required like copies of passport, birth certificate, years of residence etc.

swiftp · 07-25-2014, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lateralus

If it will include parents of those who have already been granted DACA it would be awesome. Also, to those people who missed out on the 2012 executive action.

While I wish for nothing more than for my parents to have the legal protection and work authorization that I now have under DACA, I fail to see how it would make sense to the masses. One of the big arguments in favor of DACA (and the Dream Act) was that we came to this country "through no fault of our own" since we were not old enough to make the decision to break the law--but our parents were!

2Face · 02:52 PM

Well ladies, here we go. Looking at the source of this article and the OP posting it, you know shit is about to get serious. This the moment we've been waiting for. This is when the Republicans fate is finally decided. The final nail in the coffin. Should an executive push happen from the administration, the House Republicans will be fully responsible for the huge losses their party will realize during the elections. Republicans had the chance of pioneering and passing CIR but they blew it. Now for some major action. Time to prepare coz this forum will be flooded now with our parents!! lol

dtrt09 · 02:32 PM

I haven't been here for quite a long time, but I have a bit of news which is my dearest hope will be good news.

I believe both parties have exploited our situation for far too long. I watched the president speak last November when he was heckled by activists, and I believed that he was sincere in trying to help the community as soon as possible. I wrote a letter to the White House.

Fast-forward to Spring. After the White House and the President flip-flopped on the deportations review in May, I pretty much, and at the risk of sounding immature and ridiculous -but really, it's the best way to put it - had it. 25 years in this country; 20 years as a taxpaying worker; not even a traffic ticket; no several illegitimate children being raised at other taxpayers' expense; no opportunity; roadblocks everywhere. I reached the point of indignation where one loses pretty much all fear.

I filed an electronic FOIA request with DHS on May 28th for my case file to include documentation to the present. It triggered a flag or ping with ICE. One is supposed to receive a notice confirming receipt of the FOIA request. Three days later, I received a letter from the local field office to come in August for a case review appointment along with a DACA application. I aged out of DACA because of the age-cap, so hopefully their plan is to remove the age limit soon. I was suspect of why the case review was scheduled nearly three months out, but I think it has to do with general plans for affirmative relief. AT least, I hope so. I hope that they prioritize the people who are ALREADY in the system since we are the most at-risk for deportation despite having the equities listed for prosecutorial discretion; even though the administration chose to pursue the cases or the cases had been prosecuted before the publication of the guidelines.

I also believe that the fair way to do this is evaluate one's roots and conduct in this country - either you have been a productive, responsible individual or you have not. I think the administration will be very broad as in affirmative relief will be available to most, but not lax in the conditions. Giving blanket relief to DACA parents is purely derivative, leaving the millions of individuals who aged out, the millions of non-DACA workers and their contributions out.

So, @IamAman, I hope this gives you a bit more hope. Which brings me to another point...

I believe the reason Jose A. Vargas put himself in a situation that will trigger his arrest was so that he would have an active DHS file. If my suspicions are right, and DHS will prioritize dealing with those already trapped in the system, then he will be in this group, too. What do we know now that we didn't know before he reported from the "crisis in the border"? <*Silence*>

#MyOwnAdvocate

NK74 · 07-25-2014, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorrybrah

I'm hoping the next "daca" would be for people qualified for the failed CIR bill.

That cannot be, because DACA means prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutorial discretion means that out of the people that need to be deported some get to the back of the line where they receive an indefinite postponement along with work papers and DLs.

In that sense, the president doesn't legalize. He ameliorates the situation.

And of course, by default, some people will stay to the back of the line.

My guess is that all the people who have legal spouses or siblings or Daca recipients will also receive DACA.

There is a question if he's going to give relief to those who have been for a certain number of years in the country - the longer the better- and on what terms.

Regardless, some people will not receive relief. I am guessing anywhere from 2-5 million won't, but another 4-6 will.

They need you!

Forum links

Resources

Join our list

National calendar of events

January

Obama Eyes Major Immigration Move