Illegal Immigrants in MA to Benefit from Obama’s Immigration Plan

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Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

On February 18th, applications for temporary deportation relief will begin to be accepted. This relief is an expansion on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and is part of President Obama’s new immigration policy.

The relief is for any immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally before the age of 16 and have lived in the United States since 2010.

In Massachusetts, there are 185,000 unauthorized, or illegal, immigrants. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 35% of the illegal immigrants benefit from the DACA relief including 25,000 children in and additional 40,000 parents of U.S. Citizens or permanent residents. An additional 4,000 immigrants in Massachusetts will now be covered by the DACA relief following President Obama's expansion.

“I support President Obama's courageous and necessary action to unify families, strengthen communities and local businesses, and help fix our broken immigration system.  It brings many of our hard-working neighbors out of the shadows so they can work legally, pay taxes and no longer be victimized by unscrupulous employers. It helps our police and law enforcement officers concentrate their resources on serious criminals and real security threats.  It’s also the morally right thing to do,” said Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA).

According to the Department of Homeland Security, “DACA eligibility was limited to those who were under 31 years of age on June 15, 2012, who entered the U.S. before June 15, 2007, and who were under 16 years old when they entered.  DACA eligibility will be expanded to cover all undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before the age of 16, and not just those born after June 15, 1981.  We will also adjust the entry date from June 15, 2007 to January 1, 2010.  The relief (including work authorization) will now last for three years rather than two.”

Only an estimated 56,000 have been living in the state for less than five years. 12,000 illegal immigrants are under the age of 16. Across the country, Massachusetts has the 13th highest number of illegal immigrants living in the state.

"This a stopgap measure. It's not comprehensive, and it's not permanent. Yes, this will help a lot of families, but it also leaves a lot of families out in the cold. It aids some businesses, but leaves many still reeling from irrational adjudications that don't follow previous policy. It does nothing to end family detention which goes against our own laws and international obligations,” said American Immigration Lawyers Association President Leslie Holman in November.

“Action to fix our broken immigration system is crucial for a thriving economy. The refusal to pass comprehensive reform is costing our country billions of dollars in economic growth. There is no substitute for comprehensive immigration reform, which can provide a path to citizenship, put American workers first and crack down on employers taking advantage of a broken system, enhance border security, and streamline the judicial system. But comprehensive reform requires Congressional action, which to date has been denied the American people by the GOP Leadership.Congress must be allowed to consider comprehensive immigration reform, which would eliminate the need for Executive Actions, boost our national economy and restore order to a broken system," said Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-MA).

Obama's Immigration Plan

Here are the details of President Obama's Immigration Plan, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:

• Expanding the population eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to people of any current age who entered the United States before the age of 16 and lived in the United States continuously since January 1, 2010, and extending the period of DACA and work authorization from two years to three years.USCIS will begin accepting requests for expanded DACA on February 18, 2015 
• Allowing parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to request deferred action and employment authorization for three years, in a new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, provided they have lived in the United States continuously since January 1, 2010, and pass required background checks 
• Expanding the use of provisional waivers of unlawful presence to include the spouses and sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents and the sons and daughters of U.S. citizens
• Modernizing, improving and clarifying immigrant and nonimmigrant visa programs to grow our economy and create jobs 
• Promoting citizenship education and public awareness for lawful permanent residents and providing an option for naturalization applicants to use credit cards to pay the application fee

 

For more information about the plan, click here: Executive Actions on Immigration. Check out MPI's statistics on Massachusetts unauthorized immigrants here: Profile of the Unauthorized Population: Massachusetts.

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Related Slideshow: #25 to #1: States With the Highest Amount of Illegal Immigrants

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