Sunday, June 17, 2012
President Obama's immigration policy will allow young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally to seek work permits.
The Obama administration announced that it will no longer deport younger immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children and will begin issuing work permits to them, The Huffington Post reported. The permits only would be available to individuals who had led law-abiding lives, the website reported. As many as 800,000 people could be affected by the policy change. "Today, I am announcing that effective immediately, young people brought to U.S. by no fault of their own and meet several criteria no longer are removed from country or entered into removal proceedings,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said to Fox News. Fox News reported that immigrants will have had to live in the U.S. for …
Monday, July 18, 2011
With signing of bill, state's imprint in the debate over undocumented immigrants will be felt.
Thrusting the state into the middle of the heated immigration debate, Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign in the coming weeks the Illinois DREAM Act that offers as many as 95,000 undocumented youths better access to higher education. A source told Skokie Patch that Quinn would sign the legislation on Aug. 1, making Illinois the first state in the country to create a privately funded scholarship program for undocumented high school graduates who want to attend college. The bill--formally SB 2185--passed with bipartisan support in the state House and Senate. In a rare development, the Catholic church and the state's top political leaders--who do not always see eye-to-eye on many social issues--joined forces to push for passage of the …
Monday, December 13, 2010
A review of the debates prior to last week's vote on the DREAM Act.
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last Wednesday on a narrow margin of 216-198. For those of us who were glued to our televisions, computers or mobile devices watching the live debate on C-SPAN, the passionate pleas from those supporting the bill and the equally passionate doomsday warnings by those opposed to it were very compelling. How exciting it was to watch democracy in action! Now that video and official congressional transcripts from that day have been made available to the general public, however, it seems that the actions and words by our members of Congress that day were less about democracy and more about political trickery, outright lies and…
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Critics of the bill say it provides amnesty for illegal immigrants; supporters say the bill provides a path to citizenship for people who were brought to the country illegally as minors.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 -- a piece of legislation that has had multiple different versions -- late Wednesday evening by a vote of 216 to 198. The bill is expected to go before the Senate Thursday. If passed by both houses, the current act would allow undocumented immigrants who were under the age of 16 when they were brought to the U.S. to be eligible for a green card if they have had at least two years of higher education or have been in the military; are of good moral character and have no criminal record that would make them inadmissable or deportable. Some critics of the bill call it amnesty and say it rewards illegal immigrants. They also …
Steinar Andersen
5:12 pm on Monday, June 25, 2012
Arizona gets to determine immigration status after a person has committed a crime. Win/win. more ›