WASHINGTON (AP) - Many illegal immigrants who were facing deportation despite having no criminal record will be allowed to stay in the country and apply for a work permit under new rules from the Homeland Security Department. Republicans are balking at the change.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Thursday that the department will focus on deporting illegal immigrants who are criminals or pose a threat to national security or public safety.
Napolitano announced the plan in a letter to a group of senators who support revamping the immigration system. Under the change, approximately 300,000deportation cases pending in immigration court will be reviewed case by case.
"From a law enforcement and public safety perspective, DHS enforcement resources must continue to be focused on our highest priorities," Napolitano wrote in the letter. "Doing otherwise hinders our public safety mission - clogging immigration court dockets and diverting DHS enforcement resources away from individuals who pose a threat to public safety."
The decision comes amid continued protests from immigrant communities and others that the administration has been too focused on deporting people whose only offense is being in the country without the proper documents or who have been arrested for traffic violations or other misdemeanors. There have also been widespread complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Secure Communities program, which uses fingerprints collected in state and local jails to identify illegal immigrants in a federal immigration database.
States have balked at the program, arguing it requires them to enforce federal laws. There have also been complaints that immigrants arrested for simple misdemeanors can end up in deportation proceedings.
ICE Director John Morton responded to some critics in June with a six-page memo to ICE agents outlining when and how discretion should be used. That guidance covered those potentially subject to a legislative proposal, known as the DREAM Act, intended to give young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military a chance at legal status.
Morton also suggested that agents consider how long someone has been in the United States, whether immediate family members are U.S. citizens and whether that person has a criminal record.
Napolitano said in her letter that the policy change was part of implementing that prosecutorial discretion.
While advocates and Democratic lawmakers greeted the announcement with a chorus of approval, Republicans recoiled at the policy change.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said the shift is the administration's "plan to grant backdoor amnesty to illegal immigrants."
"They have created a working group that appears to have the specific purpose of overruling, on a 'case-by-case' basis, an immigration court's final order of removal, or preventing that court from even issuing such an order," Smith said in a statement. "The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them. The Obama administration should not pick and choose which laws to enforce."
Fellow Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said the plan circumvents Congress.
"It is just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way," McCaul said. "The fact that we have a backlog and prioritize deportations is nothing new. This policy goes a step further granting illegal immigrants a fast-track to gaining a work permit where they will now unfairly compete with more than 9 percent of Americans who are still looking for jobs."
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who has been outspoken in her support for comprehensive immigration reform, said the new policy was a welcome change.
"I think this in some ways is past due, but I'm glad that it's happening now," Lofgren said.
She added the plan is fair to immigrants and makes economic sense, given the need to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, called the case-by-case review "a very positive step forward" but said more should be done to overhaul immigration rules.
"I hope the department will pursue additional initiatives to keep American families together by allowing immigrant spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for visas from within the United States based on an expanded and broad list of humanitarian factors," Melendez said.
Others, including illegal immigrants hoping for legislative relief that could include the DREAM Act, worry that the policy may not go far enough.
"I'm still careful of celebrating," said Tania Unzueta, a 27-year-old graduate student in Chicago who came to the United States with her family when she was 10 years old. "I really want to see what it looks like and what it comes with. In the past few years, every time there's something good for immigrants, there's also something really bad."
Laura Lichter, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the devil was in the details of reviewing 300,000 cases.
But whatever the result, she said, the policy does bring administrative changes to the immigration system at a time when congressional action seems unlikely.
Many Republicans have long opposed any immigration overhaul, including the DREAM Act, characterizing such proposals as amnesty.
While the new policy does not provide illegal immigrants with a path to permanent residency, it does allow those whose cases are indefinitely stayed to apply for a work permit. The government could also reopen deportation cases if an immigrant is arrested or other circumstances in their case change.
"Congress is so stuck in its partisan politics, the immigration situation is getting worse and worse and worse," Lichter said. "This is the administration's only way, and frankly a very appropriate way, to come up with an interim fix."
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday released the following statement:
“The Obama administration cannot get its amnesty schemes through Congress, so now it has resorted to implementing its plans via executive fiat. There’s simply no other description for today’s announcement that the federal government will not pursue the deportation of individuals who are in the country illegally but meet certain criteria.
“This plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of illegal aliens. Especially disturbing is that it comes in the wake of the Obama administration sanctioning the sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels – even as border states such as Arizona come under threat from those same illicit organizations. With this announcement, the President is encouraging more illegal immigration at the exact moment we need federal focus on border security.
“Just last month in speaking to the National Council of La Raza, President Obama rejected the idea of bypassing Congress and imposing immigration reform. He said, ‘Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And believe me, right now dealing with Congress, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting … But that's not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written.’
“President Obama got it right last month and got it really wrong today.
“Over the next 15 months, I’m certain we’ll hear a lot of talk from the Obama administration about its concern for border security. Those of us who truly care about the rule of law will remember the President’s actions of today. We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law.”
NothingButTheTruth posted at 9:59 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Illegal immigration is a crime. That makes them all criminals. Their crime is called a misdemeanor unless it's their second offense and then it's called a felony. This Obamanation of an executive administration has grabbed at one more power not authorized to it by the US Constitution, but that's nothing new. Backdoor amnesty to illegal aliens by decree. King Obozo thinks he can grant backdoor amnesty to millions of criminals by decree. Well, maybe he can if we let him do it. As long as they don't pose an immediate threat to public safety they can have a permit to take your job. And what about the 9 percent of Americans who are still looking for jobs? The greatest percentage of those unemployed are black, but what would you like to bet they will still vote for Obozo in 2012?
"I hope the department will pursue additional initiatives to keep American families together by allowing immigrant spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for visas from within the United States based on an expanded and broad list of humanitarian factors," Melendez said. What he means is that he hopes this will be a stepping stone for making all illegal criminal invaders legal. We need to impeach and deport the head illegal alien soon before he totally destroys the constitution along with his communist buddies Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. co- founders of the weather underground, a self-described communist revolutionary group that conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings during the 1960s and 1970s. Hope and change for a better communist led tomorrow. That is what you people elected to the white house. A man who seeks to destroy America from within so that he and his friends can rebuild it in their image of a workers paradise.
Poorman posted at 10:38 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Its nothing but a form of amnesty,our leaders??,say there are to many of them to deport them all,.They came into our country illegally one by one,two by two,three by three etc.We can deport them the same way.I didnt vote for Obama,I never thought i would vote for a
Republican, but i will this time. Hopefully this will be Obama's first and last term in office.
AZ_Resident posted at 11:14 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
So now we provide Mexico with an amnesty screening process! What next?
chatmandu002 posted at 11:28 am on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Our Dictator-in-Chief has taken it upon himself to declare that he is the King and he rules this country along with his minions. All hail King Obama.
Our borders are gone, your citizenship means nothing and the king wants your money so he can do with it as he wishes. I think Harry Reid's next act will be to set aside the Constitution and propose that Obama be appointed ruler for life. No more budgets, no more spending limits it all belongs to the King and we all serve at his will.
Well at least until Nov 2012.
Masterrogue666 posted at 2:06 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
King Obama has finally gone too far. Now he wants to openly ignore Federal law. Hey, does that mean I can rob banks now too?
The majority of ILLEGAL ALIENS have already crossed MORE THAN ONCE, which is a FELONY! They are criminals, and should NOT PROFIT from their criminal acts.
I wonder if Obama can be impeached now?
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=194785
Juggernaut6000 posted at 2:42 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
We need to get rid of illegals as badly as we need to get rid of our worthless president.
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 5:33 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
Speaking at the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference recently, President Obama said, “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. . . . But that is not how our system works.” The president is right to acknowledge that this isn’t how our government operates, but it seems the temptation to do things his own way is too much for him to withstand. This is especially true when it comes to our immigration laws.
Although Congress has defeated several amnesty bills in recent years, President Obama now wants to grant a backdoor amnesty to illegal immigrants by using executive-branch authority.
What had once been a rumor fueled by leaked administration memos is, as of last month, official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy. The director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued two directives on the scope of DHS officers’ prosecutorial discretion that could allow millions of illegal and criminal immigrants to avoid our immigration laws.
The memos tell agency officials when to exercise “prosecutorial discretion,” such as when to defer the removal of immigrants; when not to stop, question, arrest, or detain an immigrant; and when to dismiss a removal proceeding.
The directives also tell officials not to seek to remove illegal immigrants who have been present illegally for many years. Millions of illegal immigrants have been in the U.S. since the 1990s.
Further, the ICE memos make clear that the administration plans not to use but to abuse these powers. If the Obama administration has its way, amnesty will be the official policy of the United States without a vote of Congress.
This will saddle American communities with the costs of providing education and medical care to illegal immigrants. It will also place our communities at risk by not deporting criminal immigrants.
As a result, I introduced the Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation Act, also known as the HALT Act. This legislation prevents the Obama administration from abusing its authority to grant a mass administrative amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Regrettably, this isn’t the only instance in which President Obama has been tempted to do things his own way. It is part of a broader pattern of ignoring the law.
The Obama administration has all but abandoned worksite-enforcement efforts. Over the past two years, worksite-enforcement efforts fell 70 percent. Under this administration, there have been fewer arrests of illegal workers, as well as fewer criminal arrests, fewer indictments, and fewer convictions of illegal immigrants and employers.
While worksite-enforcement activities have plummeted, the Obama administration argues that it has increased the number of audits of employers. But audits do little to stop illegal immigration or discourage illegal hiring. Audits can result in fines, though employers consider them just the cost of doing business. Illegal workers are typically not arrested, so they continue to compete with citizens and legal immigrants for jobs.
We could open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans by requiring all employers to use E-Verify. This program quickly identifies those working illegally in the United States by checking the Social Security numbers of new hires. E-Verify takes only one to two minutes per hire to use, and confirms persons who are eligible to work 99.5 percent of the time. And over 270,000 employers voluntarily use it today.
Of course, lost jobs wouldn’t be as large a problem if the border itself were secure and illegal immigrants couldn’t enter in the first place. But according to the Government Accountability Office, only 44 percent of the southwest border is under “operational control” by the Border Patrol.
Completion of the border fence would help secure our border. We know that a border fence can be very effective — in San Diego, the fence reduced apprehensions by 95 percent. But there is no fence in many other areas.
To date, the administration has built only about 650 miles of the 800 miles of border fencing that Congress required in 2006. Of the 650 miles, only 299 have vehicle barriers. And even vehicle barriers can be easily bypassed.
President Obama and his administration should not pick and choose which laws they will enforce. The fact that the president doesn’t like our immigration laws doesn’t mean he shouldn’t enforce them. It appears that doing things on his own is not just tempting, it’s what President Obama does.
— Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas) is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Impeach this illegal alien! He is not only a traitor but a serial liar as well!
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 10:19 pm on Fri, Aug 19, 2011.
With de facto amnesty Obama tells black workers: Drop dead.
Dave Gibson, Immigration Reform Examiner
Obozo knows he will get the black vote so he's concentrating on getting back the Latino vote. He's lost the white vote lol
On Tuesday, Rep. Maxine Waters told a crowd gathered at a job fair in Detroit: “The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too. We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community.”
Rep. Waters has been complaining all week about the Depression-level unemployment rates among blacks, and the seeming unwillingness of this president to deal with it.
Waters said recently: “There is a growing frustration in this country and in minority communities because the unemployment rates are so high.”
And, those rates are not only high—they are unprecedented.
In June, CBS News reported that while the nation’s overall unemployment rate was around 9.1 percent, it was 16.2 percent African Americans, and a even higher still for black men. But, for black teens, the figure soars to a disastrous 41 percent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/19/eveningnews/main20072425.shtml
Advertisement
Of course, on Thursday, the Obama administration announced that they will no longer deport illegal aliens who have not been convicted of crimes. But even worse, the administration will also reportedly distribute work permits to those illegal aliens allowed to stay.
A recent study conducted by the Chicago Urban League and the Alternative Schools Network showed the tremendous impact illegal aliens are having on the employment levels of low-skilled American workers, particularly for young workers.
The study revealed a rather shocking revelation, in that, the unemployment rate among teens and young adults is soaring to unprecedented level, while millions of illegal aliens continue to hold jobs.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) released the following joint statement on the study’s findings:
“During the course of the 2007-2009 recession, the employment rate of the nation’s teens fell steeply to 26.2% by October-November 2009, setting new record lows each year. No other age group has experienced employment declines of this magnitude in the current recession. Young adults 20-24 years old in both Illinois and the nation also have been adversely affected by the deterioration in labor market developments in the state and nation in recent years, especially men, Blacks and Hispanics, and non-college graduates.”
Rep. Smith went on to say: “The fact is that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. The best outcome for low-skilled citizen and legal immigrant workers is the removal of the illegal immigrant population. The very jobs that illegal immigrants occupy rightfully belong to out of work citizens and legal immigrants.”
“At home in California, almost weekly I hear from my constituents that illegal immigration is exacerbating the unemployment crisis.”
Congressmen Smith and Miller have recently formed the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus.
In early 2010, the California Immigrant Policy Center released a study revealing that 84 percent of Latino and Asian immigrant men were employed, as compared to 78 percent of American men of Latino and Asian descent. The report also found that 12 percent of Latino and Asian immigrants are actually self-employed, as opposed to 8 percent of their U.S.-born counterparts.
In short, the study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, found that currently, immigrants (both legal and illegal) are as a group, more likely to have a job than are American workers.
These studies provided further proof for what many of us have been saying for years…That contrary to what open borders politicians such as Barrack Hussain Obama want us to believe, illegal aliens are taking jobs away from American citizens.
It has become quite clear that Obama simply takes black voters for granted and has hitched his hopes to the millions of soon-to-be legalized mostly Latino illegal aliens, who are taking jobs away from black Americans.
The Congressional Black Caucus should spearhead a movement in Congress to impeach this president who seems to make his own laws when his country’s laws no longer suit him politically.
Or could this guy just be a Bill Ayers communist that seeks to tear down America from the inside?
NothingButTheTruth posted at 1:43 pm on Sat, Aug 20, 2011.
Yes Leon, the blacks will still vote for Obozo at around 95% even though the Obomanation threw them under the bus. He may still get the Latino vote because of his illegal alien emancipation proclamation, but those Latinos he spared still can't legally vote yet. There is still hope for change.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 8:58 am on Tue, Aug 23, 2011.
Something must be wrong with my computer. I keep putting comments in and they just disappear. Maybe this Newspaper only wants to print ....the ....Liberal-Progressive-Democat side and not the Republican side...but I'll keep plugging away. I guess "Freedom of Speech" is no longer guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States because is was written by all WHITE MEN.....it isn't ...DIVERSE....enough for 2011.
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 6:11 pm on Tue, Aug 23, 2011.
Leon, EV Trib stated in another thread that they now delete comments in CAPITAL letters. Proper etiquette and all that you know. No opportunity to censor overlooked. Also I have noticed many comments being deleted that I wouldn't have taken offense by, but some people don't overlook any chance to complain about others comments.
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 9:26 am on Wed, Aug 24, 2011.
Obama plan for illegal immigrants: Want a job? Come on down!
The administration is implementing by executive order a policy it could not get Congress to adopt or even consider: amnesty for the millions of foreigners who entered the U.S. illegally or who overstayed their temporary visitor visas in order to work illegally in the U.S.
It is also sending a clear message to people all over the world who would like to try their luck in the U.S., though ineligible to do so because of U.S. immigration law: U.S. immigration law won't be enforced if all you want to do is work. Just get yourself into the U.S. by any means, don't commit serious crimes or threaten national security, and you will be able to compete with U.S. citizens for jobs. And since you're willing to work for lower wages and under worse conditions than U.S. citizens, you can probably beat them out for a job. So come on in!
Why is President Obama doing this in the midst of a historic recession with record numbers of American workers unemployed and looking for work? Is there an election coming, or what?
An illegal alien without a drivers license and arrested once for DUI gets drunk and runs a red light killing young children walking across the street. He isn't deported cause DUI is a minor crime. What does the mother do? Sue Obozo for murder? I would and I would be right to do so. His emancipation proclamation is going to cause many of the scenarios I just described and the American people are helpless just because this Obamanation wants to be reelected. Murder for profit is the crime I would call this.
The Wall Street Journal explains that, "The immigration issue is a critical one for Mr. Obummer as he prepares for reelection." Although he won 67% of the Hispanic vote in 2008, he "needs Latinos to turn out in large numbers." The New York Times reports that the new immigration policy will "bolster President Obummer's reputation with Latino voters as he heads into the 2012 election."
So President Obummer's new, generous, and numerically unlimited immigration policy may turn out to be a net winner for him in his 2012 reelection campaign---unless a Republican challenger appears who can articulate an alternative immigration policy of strict enforcement of immigration law in order to deter illegal immigration and protect American workers from low-wage immigrant competition.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/blogs/brandywine-to-broad/item/25238
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 9:27 am on Wed, Aug 24, 2011.
An illegal immigrant charged with drunken driving and hitting a motorcyclist and dragging him a quarter of a mile to his death was ordered held on $100,000 bail during his arraignment in Milford District Court yesterday.
Nicholas Guaman, 34, of Milford, pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide, driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident involving personal injury and death, possession of an open container, failing to stop for police, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to yield at a stop sign, wanton or reckless conduct creating risk to a child, and resisting arrest.
Mr. Guaman, a native of Ecuador, is being investigated by federal immigration officials. He was held on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer and bail was set at $100,000, according to court officials.
Police say Mr. Guaman was drunk when he ran a stop sign about 7:45 p.m. Saturday night and struck the motorcycle driven by Matthew Denice, 23, of Milford.
Authorities said Mr. Guaman is in the country illegally and could face deportation.
Obozo should be tried for murder for profit in this case and every other case involving an illegal aliens that commit this type of crime against American citizens.
A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name posted at 9:29 am on Wed, Aug 24, 2011.
A little four-year-old boy was struck by a car in a Santa Rosa crosswalk Thursday afternoon as he walked to soccer practice with his mom and two sisters, one of whom was his twin. He died the next morning in the hospital.
Christopher “Buddy” Rowe was hit by a man driving a Honda Accord who then sped off. Fortunately a local resident, Leroy Flach, heard about the hit-and-run on his police scanner and spotted the car, whose driver switched off into a Volvo driven by a woman. Flach got the license number and the driver was quickly arrested, due to the attention of a concerned citizen.
The driver turned out to be an illegal alien, Marcos Lopez Garcia, who had two prior arrests for driving without a license. The most recent arrest was just five days before the hit-and-run; at that time Garcia was merely told not to drive until his court appearance in October — rather than be deported.
Obozo should be tried for murder for profit in this case and every other case involving an illegal aliens that commit this type of crime against American citizens.