Last night, President Obama took a crucial step toward reforming our immigration system. He announced that he will provide immediate relief for many of those impacted by of the broken system, and he is offering Congress an architecture for the permanent reforms.
The new policies will build on the successful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by providing temporary relief for the parents of U.S. Citizens and lawful permanent residents. The new program, to be called Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), will ensure that millions of U.S. Citizen and lawful permanent resident children will remain unified with their parents. The President also announced new enforcement policies and steps to improve the adjudication of business and family visas.

An estimated 11.5 million people are living in the country without legal status. Most have families and jobs, but cannot work legally and must exist in the shadows. Such a large unauthorized population is neither good for the country’s society nor the economy.  While the program does not cover the entire unauthorized population, the program has the potential to register and bring out of the shadows an estimated number of up to 4.4 million people.

• DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents)

Parents of U.S. citizen and parents of legal permanent resident born on or before November 20, 2014, who have lived in the country continuously since before January 1, 2010 (more than five years) will have the opportunity to obtain work authorization if they come forward and register, submit biometric data, pass criminal and national security background checks and pay taxes.

• DACA Expansion

The program will also expand DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to cover additional individuals brought to the United States as children. Under initial DACA guidelines, young people who had been in the U.S. for at least five years, came as children, and met specific education and public safety criteria were eligible for temporary relief from deportation so long as they were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2007.  Now, the 31-year-old age cap will be removed and individuals can apply if they entered on or before January 1, 2010 (rather than on June 15, 2007), can demonstrate continuous presence in the United States since then, and were under the age of 16 at the time they entered, regardless of how old they are today. Going forward, DACA work permits will be issued for 3 years at a time instead of 2 years.

Deferred action does not confer legal status. The grant is temporary, so those granted the status could be at risk of deportation if the status expires. A new president technically has the authority to revoke deferred action status or to discontinue the program. However, information provided in a deferred action request by an individual who is not considered an enforcement priority is protected from disclosure to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

By providing individuals with an opportunity to come out of the shadows and work legally, the program will also help crack down on companies who hired undocumented workers, undermining the wages of all workers.

In addition, the President’s actions will also:
o Provide portable work authorization for high-skilled workers awaiting green cards and their spouses.
o Enhance immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs.
o Strengthen and extend on-the-job training for STEM graduates of U.S universities.
The full impact of the President’s announcement will reveal itself in the months ahead, we will keep a close watch over how the agencies administer these new policies.

Since at least 1956, every U.S. President has granted temporary immigration relief to one or more groups in need of assistance. Like his predecessors, President Obama did not provide a permanent legal status to anyone – only Congress can do that.

While applauding this long-fought reform for immigrant families, we keep in mind the millions left untouched.