Quick Start to Program Offering Immigrants a Reprieve
Published: September 11, 2012 - New York Times
One month after the Obama administration started a
program to suspend deportations of young illegal immigrants, more than 72,000 of
them have applied for the temporary reprieve, senior immigration
officials said on Tuesday, and this week the first approvals have been granted.
The figures for applications received so far — the
first results the administration has released since a federal agency began
receiving the documents on Aug. 15 — show that large numbers of young immigrants
are ready to take the risk of coming forward, administration officials and
immigrant advocates said, and that the agency in charge has been able to manage
the rush of paperwork.
The immigrants requesting two-year deportation
deferrals do not reach the high estimates of 250,000 that officials had said
they were prepared to handle in the first month of the program, which is President
Obamafs most significant immigration initiative.
But at the current rate, at least 200,000 young
immigrants could have applications in the pipeline by the time of the
presidential election on Nov. 6, and many thousands will probably have received
deferrals and the work permits that go along with them. Officials originally
predicted that it could take several months for the immigration agency, United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services, to issue the first deferrals.
The intense activity around the program in immigrant
communities, especially among Latinos, has already yielded some political
benefits to Mr. Obama, with Democrats repeatedly highlighting the initiative
during their convention last week, to cheers from the floor. Initiated by an
executive action, the program grants deportation deferrals that must be renewed
after two years, and it does not provide any legal immigration status.
Pressure is increasing on Mitt Romney, the Republican
candidate, to clarify his position on the program. He has not said whether he
would continue it if he is elected, although he has said he would prefer ga more
permanent solutionh for young illegal immigrants.
The surge of applicants has not been greater, lawyers
and advocates said, because of difficulties many young immigrants have
encountered in gathering the documents they need to meet the programfs
requirements and in mustering the $465 application fee, a hefty sum for many.
Since the program has no filing deadline, eligible young people are taking time
to consult with their families, weighing the benefits for them against possible
risks for parents and siblings here illegally who are not eligible.
gThere has been huge interest in community programs
where people can get information,h said Laura Lichter, president of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association, who practices in Denver. gBut these applications are
not something you would be ready to go with in one day. They take a fair amount
of work. And we have to be sure people understand the risks they are taking.h
To qualify, illegal immigrants must be under 31 years
old and have come to the United States before they were 16. They must show that
they have lived here continuously since June 15, 2007, and be currently in
school or have earned a high school diploma or have been honorably discharged
from the military. They must pass a background check to show they do not have
any significant criminal record or pose a threat to national security.
The program posed a test for the immigration agency,
known as U.S.C.I.S., which has not been known for brisk efficiency. According to
the Migration Policy Institute, a
nonpartisan research group, as many as 1.2 million illegal immigrants could be
immediately eligible for the program.
Given only two months to prepare, Alejandro Mayorkas,
the director of the agency, worked to rally its 18,000 employees, including some
11,000 federal workers, to rise to the task. The applications — sheaves of
school transcripts, utility and other bills, rental contracts or other documents
immigrants can find to track their daily lives over the past five years — have
to be submitted by mail.
Operating in the bureaucratic equivalent of a blitz,
the agency has been issuing receipts for applications within 48 hours after they
were logged in, Mr. Mayorkas said. Fingerprints and photographs are taken for
background checks, generally within three weeks after an application is
received.
The first applicants gave their fingerprints last
Thursday, Mr. Mayorkas said, and the checks were completed by Monday. The agency
is equipped to perform the criminal checks, Department of Homeland Security
officials said, because those are required for most visas the agency routinely
issues.
Completed applications first reached the
decision-making officers on Monday. By that afternoon the first few approvals
were issued, Mr. Mayorkas said, with several dozen more on Tuesday. Some
immigrants were notified immediately by text message.
gIf somebody submits documents that show by the
preponderance of the evidence that they meet the guidelines, we are poised to
move the cases as quickly as possible,h Mr. Mayorkas said.
Mr. Mayorkas said he expected the first work permits,
which are approved in a separate but parallel process, to be issued in coming
weeks.
Administration officials have said the program will be
paid for by fees, with no taxpayer money invested. California is leading in
applications, not surprisingly, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and New
Jersey. By far the largest number of applicants was born in Mexico. But
officials said a surprisingly large number of applications came from South
Koreans, a much smaller population of immigrants.
As the deferral program expands, resistance to it has
grown among Republicans in Congress, who say it is undermining the
administrationfs broader enforcement against illegal immigration and making it
difficult for immigration agents to do their jobs.
In a letter on Tuesday to John Morton, the director of
the agency in charge of enforcement, Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from
Alabama, wrote, gThere is no question that the administrationfs unilaterally
decreed policy is contrary to codified federal law and places our law
enforcement officers in an untenable position.h