Photo courtesy of www.kveo.com
By ANDRES GONZALEZ and ALICIA A. CALDWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON ― Young undocumented immigrants are scrambling to get
passports and other records in order as the Homeland Security Department starts
accepting applications to allow them to avoid deportation and get work permits.
Homeland Security announced the details Tuesday of what forms
undocumented immigrants would need to prove that they are eligible for the
Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The announcement
came a day before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was set to begin
letting people apply for the program.
Hundreds of thousands
of undocumented immigrants potentially could benefit from the program, which
President Barack Obama announced in June. The program is beginning just months
before what promises to be a tight contest for the White House in which the
minority vote might play an important role.
Obama has come under fire from those who say he hasn’t fulfilled
a previous campaign promise to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. The
policy change could stop deportations for more than 1 million young
undocumented immigrants who would have qualified for the failed DREAM Act,
formally the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, which Obama
has supported in the past.
Republican lawmakers have accused Obama of circumventing
Congress with the new program in an effort to boost his political standing and
of favoring undocumented immigrants over unemployed U.S. citizens.
Some, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith,
R-Texas, have called the policy backdoor amnesty and said they worry about
fraud.
“While potentially millions of illegal immigrants will be
permitted to compete with American workers for scarce jobs, there seems to be
little if any mechanism in place for vetting fraudulent applications and
documentation submitted by illegal immigrants,” Smith said Tuesday.
Under guidelines that the administration announced Tuesday,
proof of identity and eligibility could include a passport or birth
certificate, school transcripts, medical and financial records and military
service records. The DHS said that in some instances, multiple sworn
affidavits, signed by a third party under penalty of perjury, also could be
used. Anyone found to have committed fraud will be referred to federal
immigration agents, the department said.
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, said being approved to avoid deportation “does not provide
lawful status or a path to citizenship.”
The paperwork for the program can be downloaded from the
Immigration Services website. Applicants must pay a $465 fee and provide proof
of identity and eligibility.
A decision on each application could take several months, and
immigrants have been warned not to leave the country while their application is
pending. If they are allowed to stay in the United States and want to travel
internationally, they will need to apply for permission to come back into the
country, a request that would cost $360 more.
Advocacy groups across the country are planning events starting
this week to help immigrants fill out their applications and get all their
paperwork in order.
It has been estimated that as many as 1.7 million people could
be eligible to stay in the U.S. and legally work under the new policy.
DHS officials have said repeatedly they don’t have an estimate
of how many people may apply. In an internal document outlining the program’s
implementation, officials estimated 1.04 million people would apply in the
first year and about 890,000 would be eligible.
The document, obtained by The Associated Press, estimated that
the program could cost between $467.7 million and $585.4 million. The department
anticipated collecting about $484.2 million in fees.
