Young illegals can stay: Obama
Partial amnesty should win favour of Latino voters
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are to be allowed to stay and work in the United States after President Barack Obama offered them a partial amnesty.
In a surprise move bound to boost his support among Latino voters in battleground states, the president said his administration would stop deporting law- abiding, undocumented young adults who were brought to the U. S. as children and would instead grant them work permits.
He said the directive would “mend our nation’s immigration policy to make it more fair, more efficient and more just.”
“These are young people who study in our schools, play in our neighbourhoods, are friends with our kids and pledge allegiance to our flag,” Obama said. “They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper.”
Obama maintained that the move “is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix,” but added, “This is the right thing to do.”
America’s Voice, a pro- immigration reform pressure group, described the decision as “the biggest news on immigration in 25 years.” Up to 800,000 are to be eligible for the scheme, which is open to those aged 30 or under who have been in the country five years, are in school or are military veterans, and have no felony convictions.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said laws on deportations should not be “blindly enforced” on “productive young people” who were in the U. S. “through no fault of their own.”
There are up to 11 million illegal migrants in the U. S., up to two million of whom are young people brought in by their parents, often as babies, according to estimates by migration groups.
The order directly ushered in some parts of the Dream Act, a plan that went further by offering a path to citizenship to young migrants, which was blocked by Republicans in Congress in 2010. The proposed law, which the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pledged to veto, is a key priority for many Latino voters, whose ballots could prove decisive in swing states such as Florida, Colorado and Nevada in November’s presidential election.
Republicans were furious at being circumvented. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida claimed the order would wreck attempts to comprehensively overhaul illegal immigration. “By once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short- term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible longterm one,” he said.
Steve King, a Republican congressman for Iowa, pledged to sue the Obama administration to prevent the directive from being enforced.
Viridiana Hernandez, a 21- year- old undocumented immigrant in Arizona, said she planned to apply for a work permit, which can be renewed every two years. “It is a huge step forward and a relief for students like me,” she said.
Obama’s move was welcomed cautiously by Juan Escalante, a spokesman for DREAM Activist, a Florida- based lobby group. “It’s an exciting day, but there are reasons for skepticism,” he said.
Activists expressed concern about what would happen to applicants who had “outed” themselves as illegal migrants if Obama were ousted in November by Romney, who could scrap the change.
It was also unclear whether immigration authorities could pursue the parents of applicants, who would effectively be outed as undocumented themselves yet would be too old to apply for permits.
The president won Latinos by 36 points over John McCain, his Republican opponent, in 2008 and leads Romney by a similar figure, according to polls. However, allies feared that he was facing the prospect of a depressed turnout after failing to enact immigration reform as he promised, and increasing deportation rates since coming to power.
“This is definitely something that will reignite enthusiasm among the base,” Escalante said. “This is a start in delivering something that people have been demanding for years.”