Thread: Dhs grants amnesty! Need you to chime in april 2.

Obama proposes new rule for (Illegal)immigrant families

By Brian Bennett Los Angeles Timescontracostatimes.com
Posted: 03/30/2012 06:15:29 PM PDT 31, 2012 1:15 AM GMT


WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is proposing to make it easier for illegal immigrants who are immediate family members of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a move that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally here.

The new rule, which the Department of Homeland Security will post for public comment Monday, will reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration officials said. Currently, such immigrants must leave the country to apply for a legal visa, often leading to long stints away as they await resolution of their applications.

The proposal is the latest move by the administration to use its executive powers to revise immigration procedures without changing the law. It reflects an effort by President Barack Obama to improve his standing among Latino voters who feel he has not met his 2008 campaign promise to pursue comprehensive immigration reform.

The president's push to pass the DREAM Act, a law that would have created a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants enrolled in college or enlisted in the military, was defeated in the Senate in December. No reform legislation has been under serious consideration since, yet the U.S. has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants under Obama.

Many immigrants who might seek legal status do not pursue it out of fear they will not receive a "hardship waiver" of strict U.S. immigration laws: An illegal immigrant who has overstayed a visa for more than six months is barred from reentering the U.S. for three years; those who overstay more than a year are barred for 10 years.

Lisa Battan, an immigration attorney based in Boulder, Colo., said the current process is "encouraging people to remain illegal."

The revised rule would allow illegal immigrants to claim that time apart from a spouse, child or parent who is a U.S. citizen would create "extreme hardship," and would permit them to remain in the country as they apply for legal status. Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly, simply to return to their native country and pick up their visa.

The change could reduce a family's time apart to one week in some cases, officials said. The White House hopes to have the new procedures in place by the end of the year.

David Leopold, a Cleveland attorney and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the change a "minor processing tweak, but it has great value to families."

Hundreds of thousands of the estimated 2.5 million illegal immigrants in California could benefit from the proposed change, according to immigration activists.

Republicans accused Obama of making an end run around Congress.

"President Obama and his administration are bending long-established rules to grant backdoor amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants," said Lamar Smith, R-Texas, in a statement Friday responding to the proposal.

U.S. immigration officials countered that the revision affects only how the applications are processed, not whether the legal status ultimately is granted.

"I don't think that criticism is warranted at all," said Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "What we are doing is reducing the time of separation, not changing the standard of obtaining a waiver."

That the proposal is being announced in an election year has a whiff of political calculation, said Javier Ortiz, a Republican strategist.

"It looks like the president is pandering to Hispanic voters," said Ortiz, asserting that Obama could have proposed the change three years ago when he took office. "I would argue that Hispanics are smarter than that, and they know he has failed to bring forward comprehensive immigration reform."

The White House has previously made other administrative changes, such as a policy announced in June that gave prosecutors new authority to put on hold cases against immigration violators who have strong ties to the U.S. and no criminal record. The "discretion policy" encouraged immigration agents to focus on the removal of illegal immigrants who pose a threat to public safety or are repeat immigration law violators.

Obama proposes new rule for immigrant families - ContraCostaTimes.com

Added the LA Times article to the Homepage with slightly amended title:
http://www.alipac.us/content/obama-p...-families-320/

RE: Jean post

Wake up; what you have at the moment is an immigration system that extracts thousands in fees of REAL LEGAL applicants and NEVER finalizes their application.. If you are going to run an inhumane impossible to follow immigration system that is designed to take money from people and give NOTHING in return but a wait that is longer than a humans life span you are always going to have people that do not respect it.

Originally Posted by LostNTime

RE: Jean post

Wake up; what you have at the moment is an immigration system that extracts thousands in fees of REAL LEGAL applicants and NEVER finalizes their application.. If you are going to run an inhumane impossible to follow immigration system that is designed to take money from people and give NOTHING in return but a wait that is longer than a humans life span you are always going to have people that do not respect it.

Just trying to re-coop some of the money legal and illegal immigrants rip us off for every damn day!

Originally Posted by LostNTime

RE: Jean post

Wake up; what you have at the moment is an immigration system that extracts thousands in fees of REAL LEGAL applicants and NEVER finalizes their application.. If you are going to run an inhumane impossible to follow immigration system that is designed to take money from people and give NOTHING in return but a wait that is longer than a humans life span you are always going to have people that do not respect it.

Hmmm it is obvious where you stand on illegal immigration. Lets break it down. Illegal is Illegal...period. The legal process for immigrants works very well. I actually know LEGAL immigrants who went through the process and are very pleased and proud that they did. They always state that they cared enough about being an American citizen to do it the right way. IMO they should be very proud. The illegals who skulk across the border and use and abuse the system are spitting in the face of every Legal Immigrant who cared enough to do it the right way. To try to excuse their illegal behavior shows disrespect for the law and the many people who cared enough to do it the right way.

LET'S MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD ON THIS ONE....ANOTHER EXECUTIVE ORDER BY OBUMMER THAT SLAPS EVERY LEGAL IMMIGRANT AND AMERICAN CITIZEN IN THE FACE ONCE AGAIN BY ALLOWING THOSE HERE ILLEGALLY TO GO TO THE HEAD OF THE LINE! ANOTHER EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT BYPASSES CONGRESS AND THE RULE OF LAW AGAIN!

You can go directly to the public comment page at this address:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComm ... -0003-0001

From the Federal Register: Federal Register, Volume 77 Issue 63 (Monday, April 2, 2012)

DATES: Written comments should be submitted on or before June 1, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by DHS Docket No. USCIS-2012-0003, by one of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Email: You may submit comments directly to USCIS by email
at uscisfrcomment@dhs.gov. Include DHS Docket No. USCIS-2012-0003 in the subject line of the message.

Mail: Sunday Aigbe, Chief, Regulatory Products Division,
Office of the Executive Secretariat, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, Department of Homeland Security, 20 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20529-2020. To ensure proper handling, please reference DHS Docket No. USCIS-2012-0003 on your correspondence.
This mailing address may be used for paper, disk, or CD-ROMsubmissions.

Hand Delivery/Courier: Sunday Aigbe, Chief, Regulatory
Products Division, Office of the Executive Secretariat, U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security,
20 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20529-2020. Contact
Telephone Number is (202) 272-8377.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roselyn Brown-Frei, Office of Policy and Strategy, Residence and Naturalization Division, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security, 20 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20529-2099, Telephone (202) 272-1470 (this is not a toll free number).