Under a new exemption granted recently by President Obama’s administration, young “illegal immigrants” will be able to avoid deportation from the United States. Generally speaking, the plan allows for qualified immigrants to apply for a work permit which is valid for two years, and has no limit on the allowed renewals. The qualified immigrants will be immune from deportation if they meet the following requirements:
- Came to the United States under the age of sixteen;
- Are under the age of thirty;
- Have continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding the date of this memorandum and are present in the United States on the date of this memorandum;
- Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a general education development certificate, or are honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States;
- Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety;
Unlike a parallel prior proposal called the DREAM Act, this plan does not offer a pathway to citizenship, but does allow the qualified immigrants to stay in the United States for an indefinite time period. Depending on which source you look at, the plan is expected to affect approximately 800,000 immigrants in the United States.
Politics aside, there are legitimate arguments to be made that this plan will be difficult to verify and supervise – specifically, the requirement that the immigrant was brought to the United States before the age of 16.
For example, it may be relatively easy to verify through customs and/or immigration records for the situation in which parents brought a child from Europe, and the child subsequently overstayed his/her visa. However, the majority of the immigrants that this plan will affect will not have been brought here in that manner. Many of them were brought to the United States undocumented, and there is no record of their entrance into the United States. This obviously poses a problem and potential fraud, as unqualified immigrants may claim to be brought before age 16, when in fact they were not.
In addition, another requirement that will be difficult to verify will be the “continuous residence” requirement. Similar to the immigrants just mentioned, many of them may have traveled back and forth for unverified periods of time, with no records and thus make it very difficult to verify that they continuously resided in the United States.
In conclusion, many undocumented immigrants may benefit from under the new Obama plan and thus be able to avoid deportation. In addition, while the beneficiaries of this plan will be able to work and stay in the United States indefinitely, they still do not have any real pathway to citizenship. Finally, the manner in that the plan’s criteria will be enforced and monitored still remains to be seen, as well as other unintended consequences of the plan.
The information contained in this article does not constitute a legal opinion nor does it serve as replacing a proper individual legal consultation. Any use of this information shall be entirely at the risk of the reader.
This article was written by Dotan Cohen Law Offices, an immigration law firm that handles legal matters related to the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel. Our contact details are:
Tel. +1-646-797-5717
e-mail: [email protected]
