that Kudos are in order to the hundred or so immigration scholars that a few weeks ago urged President Obama to use his executive powers to provide administrative relief to undocumented youth. As some of you may have just learned, news outlets are reporting at this moment that President Obama announced that he will in fact provide this relief!
Congrats are in order to my friend Professor Hiroshi Motomura for his leadership in drafting the letter to the President. Congrats are also in order to the thousands of brave undocumented youth around the country that used 1960s era civil engagement for several years now to help change America. They are American heroes and are my inspiration. I am so proud to call many of them friends!
Here is a recent news account:
President Obama will announce a new immigration policy this morning that will allow some undocumented students to avoid deportation and receive work authorization.
Under the “deferred action” policy, a Department of Homeland Security directive, students in the U.S. who are already in deportation proceedings or those who qualify for the DREAM Act and have yet to come forward to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, will not be deported and will be allowed to work in the United States.
An estimated 1 million young people could benefit from the deferral. To be eligible, applicants have to be between 15 and 30 years old, live in the U.S. for five years, and maintain continuous U.S. residency. People who have one felony, one serious misdemeanor, or three minor misdemeanors will be ineligible to apply. “Deferred action” will last for two years and can be renewed.
Obama is expected to speak about this new policy later today.
Republicans blocked the DREAM Act in 2010, and this year, House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) has already said he would not hold a hearing on the DREAM Act in his committee.
Obama’s announcement will create a smart policy to help protect young adults at risk of deportation who have spent years establishing their homes in the United States while boostingthe U.S. economy.
What is really needed is for the feds to conduct mass arrests and to hold the illegals in concentration camps pending deportation.
It's a hugely important development. The memo from Napolitano, setting out the policy, is here:
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s1-exercising-prosecutorial-discretion-individuals-who-came-to-us-as-children.pdf
One thing that I'm especially pleased about is that it seems the policy is not nearly as stingy as most proposed versions of the dream act- it seems to apply to people not in college, for example. There was no plausible reason to limit the dream act to those in college, so I'm glad to see that part left out. (The "military only" version of the dream act, proposed by Rubio and others, was a non-starter for all sorts of reasons, but would have been even more stingy. I'm glad the administration didn't go for that.)
One clarification to the description above: as written, it sounds as if someone could qualify who came to the US at 20 years old or the like if he or she had lived here for 5 years. ("To be eligible, applicants have to be between 15 and 30 years old, live in the U.S. for five years…") But, this applies only to people who entered before the age of 16. I think that's probably reasonable.
We will have to wait and see how this is applied in practice. Enforcement-focused officials and officers in ICE and CBP have bucked calls for similar human and common-sense reforms in the past, and could make this much less important than it should be. Similarly, clear methods of implementation will be needed so that people are willing to come forward and are able to get relief within a reasonable period of time. It's also not a fully satisfactory solution- it offers no path to fully legalized status (not even the incredibly slow and twisting path the later versions of the dream act offered), it will require people to re-apply every two years, and, as an administrative fix, could (and likely would) be over-turned by a Republican administration. So, even though it's a huge improvement and a great victory, it's still only a start.
One thing to wonder about:
On the AILA announcement, one part of the eligibility requirements says this:
"Be currently enrolled in high school, graduated or have a GED, or have enlisted in the military"
Margaret Stock, a former military lawyer who is an excellent immigration lawyer as well says, in an email to the improf list serve:
"The "enlisted in the military" part is wrong. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enlist voluntarily in the military (although they can be drafted). People with deferred action are also currently ineligible to enlist voluntarily."
(This is one of the reasons why the Rubio military only version was a non-starter, but only one reason.)
In the Napolitano memo, the condition is put thus:
"…is an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces ofthe United States;"
So, I'm not really sure what's going on here, and who would be eligible under this last bit.