Obama Planning to
Stop Deportation for Millions of Illegals
Length of Time in U.S., Family
Ties to Others in Country Are Expected Criteria
(WSJ) – The White House is considering two central
requirements in deciding which of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants
would gain protections through an expected executive action: a minimum length
of time in the U.S., and a person’s family ties to others in the country, said
people familiar with the administration’s thinking.
Those requirements, depending on how broadly they are drawn,
could offer protection to between one million and four million people in the
country illegally.
The deliberations follow President Barack Obama ’s
promise to act to change the immigration system, after legislation overhauling
immigration law died in Congress.
Republicans have protested that Mr. Obama would overstep his
authority by acting alone. Several Democratic candidates in tight races also
have complained, and last month the president canceled plans to announce the
changes before the election.
Mr. Obama, who has been criticized by immigrant-rights
advocates for the delay, wants to grant new protections—such as safe harbor
from deportation and work permits—to many people who are in the U.S. illegally
but have significant ties to the country, said three people familiar with White
House thinking.
Such protections would be temporary since the president
lacks authority to give people permanent legal status.
One person said officials are leaning toward granting
protections to people in the country illegally for 10 years and who meet other
criteria, though that could be broadened to include more recent arrivals.
Parents of U.S. citizens are likely to qualify, people
familiar with discussions said, as long as they meet other criteria. But it is
unclear whether the policy would include parents of so-called Dreamers—people
brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and who were given a temporary legal
status in 2012.
Also unclear is whether other family ties, such as being
married to a U.S. citizen, would qualify somebody for new protections. Illegal
immigrants cannot win legal status by marriage unless they return to their home
country for a period of years.
The answers to those questions will determine whether up to
four million people or as few as just over one million gain protections,
according to estimates prepared by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute,
which the White House has consulted.
White House spokeswoman Katherine Vargas said the president
hasn’t made a decision or even received recommendations from his cabinet
secretaries. “It is premature to speculate about the specific details,” she
said. Still, a mid-December announcement of the change is expected by many
immigration experts.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), who tried to move
immigration legislation through the House this year, said executive action
would amplify distrust among Republicans in Mr. Obama and make legislating
harder. “The right’s going to fly off the rails,” he said. “How do you trust
someone who says he does not have the legal authority to do something and then
does it anyway?” Mr. Obama previously said that his ability to change
immigration law on his own was limited.
White House officials also are considering allowing more
young people into the 2012 “Dreamer’’ program that grants temporary legal
status and work permits to those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as
children, according to two people familiar with discussions. Some 580,000
people were enrolled in the program as of June.
No matter how the White House draws the criteria, the number
gaining new protections is certain to be less than the eight million or so who
would have benefited from legislation that the Senate passed last year, but
that died amid GOP opposition in the House.
Any package along these lines is sure to be attacked by
Republicans and possibly some Democrats as presidential overreach.
Administration officials say they are working to make sure that whatever they
do is legally and politically defensible.
One person people familiar with the process said the White
House is trying to craft a plan that survives Mr. Obama’s presidency and isn’t
so unpopular that a future Republican president could easily reverse it. “It
has to be politically sustainable,” this person said.
One of the most politically sensitive questions is whether
to include parents of young people in the Dreamer program, known formally as
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. These people are among the most
politically active in the immigration debate and are demanding that their
parents not be left out.
The president “must be inclusive, and he must be broad, to
protect as many people as possible,” said Cristina Jimenez, managing director
of the group United We Dream. “Any package of administrative reform must
include our parents.”
Republicans have said that broad executive action would kill
any chance for immigration legislation next year. Democrats reply that chances
already are low that the two parties could come to agreement on a bill.
Immigration activists are pressing Mr. Obama to take the most sweeping action
possible.
The White House also is expected to change criteria used in
deciding who is a priority for deportation. It may, for instance, say a traffic
violation doesn’t make someone a priority, though other convictions do. The
legal rationale is that the administration lacks the capacity to deport all
illegal immigrants and has discretion to set priorities.
Other changes are expected to benefit businesses that use
large numbers of legal immigrants, such as technology companies. One change
under consideration would “recapture” unused visas from previous years in order
to make more visas available to such companies, according to one person
familiar with the deliberations. This person said that a second change that
companies have requested—changing the way visas are counted so that a family
unit counts as only one spot toward the limit—is less likely.
This person said the administration is also considering a
change that would make it easier for foreign students to stay in the U.S. after
graduation while they await employment-based visas.
White House officials are inclined to wait to announce the
new policy until after a must-pass spending bill has cleared Congress, to avoid
tangling that legislation with any GOP effort to roll back the immigration
policy.
Further, the Louisiana Senate race may not be decided until
a Dec. 6 runoff, and White House officials want to avoid injecting immigration
into any re-election fight by Sen.Mary Landrieu , a Democrat.
It also is possible that the Georgia Senate race will remain
unsolved until an early January runoff, but a senior administration official
said there is no thought to pushing the announcement into next year. Mr. Obama
has repeatedly vowed to act by year’s end.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-may-cut-deportations-1414626089
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See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/obama-planning-stop-deportation-millions-illegals-64852/#sthash.8QEcko0X.dpuf
10/30/14
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