Support for “Limited” Immigration Plan shown by some House Republicans
Support for “Limited” Immigration Plan shown by some House Republicans Read More »
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program Offers Temporary Solutions to a Permanent Issue
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is no substitute for immigration reform, but it’s helped many undocumented immigrants in the United States access opportunities and stay deportation through two-year visas.
To qualify, immigrants must be between the ages of 15 and 30, have arrived illegally when they were children. Additionally they must either be in school, have graduated high school or earned their GED, or be military veterans. Also, they must not have been convicted of any serious crimes such as violence, drunk driving, or drug-related offenses, or at least three misdemeanors. The Immigration Policy Center estimated that around 950,000 immigrants across the country qualified for this program.
The program was created by President Obama in June of 2012. Since then, over 565,000 young undocumented immigrants in the United States have received two-year visas. However, this is not a permanent solution because the program is only in effect at the discretion of the president, and this current administration is on its last leg. There is no guarantee the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will survive past this presidency.
A more permanent solution on the national level passed in the Senate in June of 2013 and is currently stalled on the House floor. It would provide avenues to citizenship for the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in the country, but it would also double the size of Border Patrol and enhance surveillance technology on the 2,000-mile Mexican border.
On the state and local levels, some states have granted access to driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and do not require social security numbers on state university and college applications. These are life-changing provisions, opening up opportunities for mobility, education, and an all around expanded life.
Source: Krogstad, Jens Manuel. “Temporary visa opens up world for young immigrant,” USA Today. September 24th, 2013. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/24/temporary-visa-opportunities-young-immigrant/2859321/
]]>New Jersey Governor Christie Agrees to A Modified DREAM Act
The DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, first proposed to the federal legislature in 2001, has been adapted and adopted by many US States since then, although it has yet to be federally approved. The idea is to create access to residency through educational opportunities and to make education more affordable for, in the words of New Jersey State Senate president Stephen Sweeney, “Young people who are Americans in everything but on paper.”
The state of New Jersey legislature and Governor Chris Christie recently stuck a deal to pass their version of this bill that would allow undocumented immigrants who attended New Jersey high schools for at least three years to pay lower, in-state tuition rates for state colleges and universities.
This deal was struck as a compromise. Governor Christie agreed to sign the DREAM Act into law on the condition that the provision to grant financial aid to undocumented immigrants was removed. While agreeing to grant undocumented immigrants who completed high school in New Jersey, he refused to grant financial aid. During his campaign, he stated that he promised to work for tuition equality, but didn’t go into details about what tuition equality meant to him. Christie publicly fought New Jersey’s democratically-controlled legislature over the provision of this bill.
In response to criticism about misleading the Hispanic population in his recent reelection where he won 51% of the Hispanic vote, Christie explained, “What I was trying to do all along was get to what I promised, which was tuition equality. I didn’t promise tuition assistance grants and financial aid […] This is what compromise looks like.”
On a federal level, the DREAM Act has weighed in heavily in the last two presidential elections. John McCain’s support for the bill in 2008 proved to be a liability for the Republican Party, in the 2012 election Mitt Romney promised to veto it if elected, and Obama showed some support by issuing an executive order to circumvent congress and stay deportation of illegal immigrants under the age of 30 brought into the United States under the age of 16. Although most of the decisive action on the DREAM Act and its permutations has been on the state level, it promises to be an issue again in the 2016 election.
Adapted from: Timm, Jane C. “Christie’s DREAM: ‘This is what compromise looks like,’” MSNBC. December 20, 2013. http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/chris-christie-dream-act
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How the Harshest Immigration Law in America Failed
In 2011, Alabama passed HB 56, America’s harshest immigration policy. Aspect aid to undocumented immigrants illegal, and even empowering citizens to sue police officers witnessed shirking their duties to enforce these laws.
It only took six weeks after the bill passed for proponents of the bill to begin to question their own judgment.
“I’ve learned in life that if you make a mistake, you should be man enough to admit it,” said Republican senator Gerald Dial.
Dial voted for the law and had second thoughts after a German Mercedes-Benz executive was subject to arrest for a traffic citation. The executive was stopped in his rental car for not having proper tags on the vehicle and only had on him his German identification. HB 56 required the police arrest and detain the driver until federal immigration authorities determined what to do with him no matter how much time it took. Needless to sas of this law included banning landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants, checking students’ legal status at schools, made givingy, this terrified the business community.
At the same time, police officers resisted the laws as well since they simply didn’t have the manpower it took to enforce the laws when traffic citations suddenly turned into long, drawn-out arrests and detentions that cost departments lots of money. The Hispanic population stopped talking to law enforcement all together for fear of detention and deportation as well.
HB 56, with its provision that criminalized giving aid to undocumented immigrants made everything from soup kitchens to church services in Spanish illegal. Mass confusion about what places and services people needed to provide papers to access caused chaos in the courts and in utilities offices, and generated long lines for citizens and non-citizens alike.
“Illegal is illegal,” was the rallying cry behind this legislation, arguing that federal immigration policy was not strong enough to meet the needs of Alabama to stem the flow of undocumented workers. The original goal was to expel the undocumented immigrants living in Alabama. When the law first passed, many immigrants fled the state or adjusted their lives to minimize car trips and avoid police road blocks. Two years later the demographics are about the same as before HB 56 went into effect.
“When it first went into effect, people were afraid to go outside,” reported Father Tim Pfander who leads the St. William Catholic Church congregation that includes hundreds of Latinos. “Today, I think they’ve seen how it’s enforced and are carrying on.”
Looking back since 2008, it’s clear that there’s been a shift in Alabama’s attitude towards undocumented immigrants in the state. Anti-immigration fervor that led to the passing of HB 56 has largely subsided. In 2012 elections, immigration was not a central issue of the race and HB 56’s main proponents, Councilman Chuck Ellis and Mayor Lindsey Lyons were both voted out. Current elected officials tend to take a moderate stance on the immigration issue.
Although the laws set in place by HB 56 have been massively scaled back and attitudes towards undocumented immigrants have become more accepting of the reality of it, the population still carries some scars. Many Hispanic students who had scholarships for state universities lost their scholarships because they had to stay home to take care of younger siblings in case their parents got detained. Although undocumented immigrants aren’t leaving the state, they still have no obvious ways of becoming naturalized into the country they live in and still live in fear of deportation.
Adapted from: Sarlin, Benjy. “How America’s harshest immigration law failed,” MSNBC. December 16, 2013. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/undocumented-workers-immigration-alabama
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