Immigration Reform News 2014: Final Recommendations Coming From Agencies for Obama's Executive Action on Immigration Reform
Within the next few weeks, the Justice Department and Homeland Security will finalize their recommendations for immigration reform for the Obama Administration's executive action, reported BuzzFeed.
President Obama said he will wait until after the elections before making the announcement. The delay has angered many Latino leaders, organizations and immigrants which may either result increased Latino turnout during the midterm elections next week, or a tepid response. Election pundits says the delay has galavinzed voters.
"Immigration is a core issue for Latinos," said Cristobal Alex, president of Latino Victory Project. "There is frustration in the Latino community around that [congressional inaction]."
READ MORE: Latino voters to impact mid-terms
The details of what agencies are considering are unclear, but sources told BuzzFeed that some questions being asked are whether and how to include parents of DREAMers either under an extension of DACA or a new larger deferred action program. Or what length of time an undocumented immigrants needs to have lived in the U.S. to receive protections, and if proof needs to be 10 years of residency or five years.
"As you know, the president has not made a decision yet on the administrative immigration reforms he is set to announce by the end of the year. It will be premature to speculate about the specific details including the scope of the number of immigrants who will be impacted since that decision has not been made," said White House spokeswoman Katherine Vargas.
Latin Post reported in August there were a number of reforms being considered: increasing the number of skilled foreign workers that can come to the U.S. excluding spouses from the 140,000-per-year-visa cap, an idea put forward by high tech firms; reusing "green" cards, deferring deportations from 500,000 to 4.4 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, as well as providing some with work permits; an expansion of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals; and temporary relief for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are closely related to U.S. citizens or those who have lived in the country a certain number of years.
READ MORE : Immigration Reform plans
In 2012 Obama was able to defer deportations for some undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, through the program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
With the initiation of DACA in 2012, as of March 2014, 673,417 young people applied to the program and 553,197 were approved. The program is not a pathway to citizenship but young adults for the first time could get a driver's license, obtain a credit card, apply for a better job, increase their earnings, open a bank account and get healthcare, according to National UnDACAmented Research Project (NURP).
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