Today President Obama laid out the new steps he is taking to fix America’s immigration system that is broken. He will enact his immigration reform plans by executive action.
The following points are included in Obama’s executive action.
- Immigration authorities will focus on deporting undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and not on hard working parents and families.
- More resources will be deployed to the U.S. border to strengthen enforcement.
- Parents of green card holders and U.S. citizens, who are undocumented, to pay taxes and undergo background checks to become eligible for a temporary relief from deportation and for work permits. This is meant only for those who have spent not less than five years in the U.S.
- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that grants certain undocumented youth a temporary relief from deportation would be expanded to include undocumented youth who came here illegally before January 1, 2010.
- Expand employment authorization for high-skilled foreign born workers who are in line for green cards.
These immigrants will only be granted a temporary relief from deportation and will not qualify for green cards. They will not be granted citizenship rights. This immigration plan is expected to benefit more than 5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
President Obama, in his announcement, also stated that his immigration plan in not amnesty and that mass amnesty is unfair. At the same time, mass deportation is also not only unfair, but not possible. He said that those who entered the U.S. illegally will be allowed to come out of the shadows and live here if they meet the requirements. If they are criminals, they will be deported and the administration also would focus on deporting those who recently got into the country illegally. Most of all, these new rules will not apply to those who recently got into the U.S. and to those who illegally travel to the U.S. in future.
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