Saturday, January 07, 2012 5:13:33 AM
Tweak in Rule to Ease a Path to Green Card
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: January 6, 2012
Obama administration officials announced on Friday they are proposing a fix to a Catch-22 in immigration [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html ] law that could spare hundreds of thousands of American citizens from prolonged separations from illegal immigrant spouses and children.
Although the regulatory tweak appears small, lawyers said it would mean that many Americans will no longer be separated for months or years from family members pursuing legal residency. Even more citizens could be encouraged to come forward to bring illegal immigrant relatives into the system, they said.
The move was greeted with unusually broad praise from immigration lawyers and immigrant and Latino groups, which have been critical of the high rate of deportations under President Obama. Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights [ http://www.chirla.org/ ] in Los Angeles, called it a “welcome rational solution to a simple problem” that will mean “thousands upon thousands of families will remain together.”
The fix is one of a number of recent measures by the administration that do not require the approval of Congress, designed to ease the effects on immigrant communities of contradictory or outmoded statutes. White House officials have been seeking ways to shore up sagging support for the president, particularly among Latinos.
In essence, officials at Citizenship and Immigration Services are proposing to change the procedures by which illegal immigrants with American family members apply for legal residency — getting a document known as a green card — allowing a crucial early step to take place in the United States rather than in the immigrant’s home country.
Alejandro Mayorkas [ http://1.usa.gov/xYytz9 ], the director of the agency, said the purpose was to relieve burdens on citizens while also streamlining a convoluted, costly process.
“We are achieving a system efficiency, saving resources for the taxpayers and reducing the time of separation between a spouse or child and the U.S. citizen relative,” Mr. Mayorkas said.
On Friday the agency published a formal notice in The Federal Register that it was preparing a new regulation. But Mr. Mayorkas stressed that step was only the beginning of a long process the agency hopes to complete by issuing a new rule before the end of this year.
The applause from lawyers, Latinos and immigrant organizations was a strikingly different message than the administration has heard for many months.
“This will open up a huge door to bring a large number of people into the light,” said Charles Kuck [ http://www.immigration.net/people/attorneys-charles-kuck ], an immigration lawyer in Atlanta who is a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association [ http://www.aila.org/ ]. Based on their caseloads and census data, lawyers estimate that many hundreds of thousands of Americans are married to illegal immigrants.
The new rule would make no change in the situation of illegal immigrants who do not have immediate American family members. White House officials acknowledge that there will be no progress before the November elections on legislation the president supports to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.
Under the law, American citizens are entitled to apply for green cards for immigrant spouses and children, even those who entered the country illegally. But the law requires most to return to their home countries to receive their visas.
The catch is that once the immigrants leave the United States, they are automatically barred from returning for at least three years and often for a decade, even if they are fully eligible to become legal residents.
Citizenship and Immigration Services can provide a waiver from those bars, if the immigrants can show that their absence would cause “extreme hardship” to a United States citizen. But for the past decade, obtaining the waiver was almost as difficult and time-consuming as getting the green card.
Immigrants had to return to their countries to wait while the waiver was approved. Waiting times extended to months, even years. Sometimes waivers were not approved, and immigrants were permanently separated from their American families.
The journey toward green cards for which they were eligible was so risky that many families simply decided to live in hiding and not apply.
Now Citizenship and Immigration Services proposes to allow illegal immigrants to get a provisional waiver in the United States before they leave to pick up their visas. Having the waiver in hand will allow them to depart knowing they almost certainly will be allowed to return, officials said. The agency is also seeking to cut down wait times for immigrants overseas to only a few weeks.
“Finally — an opportunity,” said one American citizen in North Carolina who has been married for seven years to an illegal immigrant from Honduras. The woman said she wept Friday when she heard the news of the waiver proposal.
The couple owns a construction business and has four children who are citizens. They tried to apply for his legal documents, she said, but immigration lawyers advised them that if he left for Honduras to pick up a visa, he would be unable to return for 10 years. “If you try to come out of the shadows, your family will suffer,” the lawyers told her.
Now they will start his application again, said the woman, who remained reluctant to publish her name until the new rule takes effect.
“We can’t survive without each other,” she said. “I should have a right as a U.S. citizen to live in my country with my husband.”
Republicans criticized the move as an effort by Mr. Obama to circumvent Congress. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called it “an abuse of administrative powers.” Mr. Smith was an author of legislation in 1996 that created the 3- and 10-year bars to return by illegal immigrants.
Nancy Kuznetsov, a leader of American Families United [ http://www.americanfamiliesunited.org/ ], a group of Americans who are struggling in the immigration system, said many members called her Friday, elated.
“Yay!” said Mrs. Kuznetsov, who was separated [ http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/share-your-immigration-story/ ] for more than four years from her husband, Vitali, who is from Belarus, while waiting for a waiver. “There are so many families this will be a good thing for, I feel good in my heart that this is finally happening.”
*
Related
Times Topic: Immigration and Emigration
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration-and-emigration/index.html
*
Related in Opinion
Editorial: A Common-Sense Immigration Move (January 7, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/opinion/a-common-sense-immigration-move.html
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/path-to-green-card-for-illegal-immigrant-family-members-of-americans.html [with comments]
===
Obama's immigration move may have political benefit on 2 fronts
Under President Obama, the U.S. has deported a record number of illegal immigrants. A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center last month showed that 59% of Latinos disapproved of his handling of deportations.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press / January 6, 2012)
President Obama's plan to ease rules for some illegal immigrants is likely to shore up his standing among crucial Latino voters while igniting a new fight with Republicans as he seeks reelection.
By Peter Nicholas, Washington Bureau
January 6, 2012, 8:19 p.m.
Reporting from Washington— President Obama moved to repair relations with a crucial voting bloc and opened another battle with Republican lawmakers by easing rules on the politically volatile issue of illegal immigration.
His proposal will probably affect tens of thousands — perhaps more than 100,000 — illegal residents. It would end a requirement that undocumented immigrants with parents or spouses in the United States leave the country first if they wish to file paperwork that would forestall deportation on the grounds of family hardship.
Without the so-called hardship waiver, illegal immigrants are barred from reentering the U.S. for up to 10 years. The existing rule often means that people seeking waivers must separate from their families for months or in some cases years while their applications are processed.
Under the new rule, which does not require congressional approval, immigrants would be allowed to stay in the U.S. and apply for a waiver, which can be granted if deporting an immigrant would cause undue hardship to his or her U.S. family. Once waivers are granted, immigrants may apply for green cards. They would still have to leave the U.S. to make those applications, but because they would have hardship waivers in hand, they would be very likely to gain readmission to the country.
About 23,000 immigrants annually use the existing system. Many travel to Ciudad Juarez just over the border from El Paso — and one of Mexico's most dangerous cities — to file their applications and often are stuck there for extended periods. Administration officials expect many more people to apply for waivers once such trips are unnecessary.
The move left Republicans infuriated. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the new rule along with other moves by the president had "granted back-door amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants without a vote of Congress."
Latino groups, many of which have been highly critical of Obama for failing to move aggressively on immigration issues, were delighted. The administration's move is a "sensible and compassionate proposal [that] helps bring much-needed sanity to an often senseless process," said Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, which describes itself as the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy group.
Both reactions were welcomed at the White House. Obama's aides have been eager to highlight the difference between the president and Republicans on immigration issues, knowing he has little to lose — the conservative voters who are most deeply concerned about illegal immigration have little likelihood of voting for him — and much to gain.
Obama won two-thirds of the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential race, according to exit polls, and he needs a similar margin in November to win reelection. Campaign strategists have identified several paths to capturing the 270 electoral votes he needs: All require a strong showing among Latino voters to win swing states including Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
Disquiet over Obama's immigration policies has jeopardized his support among Latino voters. Under Obama, the government has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants. And he has failed to persuade Congress to overhaul the immigration system and provide a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million living in the U.S. illegally, despite a promise that he would address the issue in his first year in office.
A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center last month showed that 59% of Latinos disapproved of Obama's handling of deportations although it also showed the president running far ahead of the Republican presidential candidates. The Republicans have been competing for the toughest rhetoric against illegal immigration as they jockey for the support of the conservative voters who dominate the party's primaries.
The move on immigration followed a pattern the administration has relied on recently of aggressively using executive action to achieve goals that have been stuck in Congress. Earlier this week, Obama used his power to fill job vacancies during congressional recesses to name a chief for the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to fill three slots on the National Labor Relations Board.
Last year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the government would use discretion before deporting illegal immigrants. The aim would be to target felons and "public safety threats" but limit deportations of students and people who've lived here since childhood, officials said.
"If 2011 was the White House's attempt to win back the center, 2012 is about mobilizing the base," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a group that advocates an immigration overhaul. "They are realizing that they need a huge turnout of Latino votes in Florida and in the West."
peter.nicholas@latimes.com
*
Also
Obama rule would let undocumented stay in U.S. during application
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-immigration-regulation-20120105,0,2762934.story
U.S. launches new hotline for immigration detainees
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/feds-create-new-hotline-form-for-immigration-detainees.html
Immigration laws pose a test of states' rights in Supreme Court
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-courts-20111229,0,2286951.story
Protecting illegal immigrants, state by state
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-states-20111212,0,3733324.story
*
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-immigration-20120107,0,5923586.story [with comments]
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: January 6, 2012
Obama administration officials announced on Friday they are proposing a fix to a Catch-22 in immigration [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html ] law that could spare hundreds of thousands of American citizens from prolonged separations from illegal immigrant spouses and children.
Although the regulatory tweak appears small, lawyers said it would mean that many Americans will no longer be separated for months or years from family members pursuing legal residency. Even more citizens could be encouraged to come forward to bring illegal immigrant relatives into the system, they said.
The move was greeted with unusually broad praise from immigration lawyers and immigrant and Latino groups, which have been critical of the high rate of deportations under President Obama. Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights [ http://www.chirla.org/ ] in Los Angeles, called it a “welcome rational solution to a simple problem” that will mean “thousands upon thousands of families will remain together.”
The fix is one of a number of recent measures by the administration that do not require the approval of Congress, designed to ease the effects on immigrant communities of contradictory or outmoded statutes. White House officials have been seeking ways to shore up sagging support for the president, particularly among Latinos.
In essence, officials at Citizenship and Immigration Services are proposing to change the procedures by which illegal immigrants with American family members apply for legal residency — getting a document known as a green card — allowing a crucial early step to take place in the United States rather than in the immigrant’s home country.
Alejandro Mayorkas [ http://1.usa.gov/xYytz9 ], the director of the agency, said the purpose was to relieve burdens on citizens while also streamlining a convoluted, costly process.
“We are achieving a system efficiency, saving resources for the taxpayers and reducing the time of separation between a spouse or child and the U.S. citizen relative,” Mr. Mayorkas said.
On Friday the agency published a formal notice in The Federal Register that it was preparing a new regulation. But Mr. Mayorkas stressed that step was only the beginning of a long process the agency hopes to complete by issuing a new rule before the end of this year.
The applause from lawyers, Latinos and immigrant organizations was a strikingly different message than the administration has heard for many months.
“This will open up a huge door to bring a large number of people into the light,” said Charles Kuck [ http://www.immigration.net/people/attorneys-charles-kuck ], an immigration lawyer in Atlanta who is a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association [ http://www.aila.org/ ]. Based on their caseloads and census data, lawyers estimate that many hundreds of thousands of Americans are married to illegal immigrants.
The new rule would make no change in the situation of illegal immigrants who do not have immediate American family members. White House officials acknowledge that there will be no progress before the November elections on legislation the president supports to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.
Under the law, American citizens are entitled to apply for green cards for immigrant spouses and children, even those who entered the country illegally. But the law requires most to return to their home countries to receive their visas.
The catch is that once the immigrants leave the United States, they are automatically barred from returning for at least three years and often for a decade, even if they are fully eligible to become legal residents.
Citizenship and Immigration Services can provide a waiver from those bars, if the immigrants can show that their absence would cause “extreme hardship” to a United States citizen. But for the past decade, obtaining the waiver was almost as difficult and time-consuming as getting the green card.
Immigrants had to return to their countries to wait while the waiver was approved. Waiting times extended to months, even years. Sometimes waivers were not approved, and immigrants were permanently separated from their American families.
The journey toward green cards for which they were eligible was so risky that many families simply decided to live in hiding and not apply.
Now Citizenship and Immigration Services proposes to allow illegal immigrants to get a provisional waiver in the United States before they leave to pick up their visas. Having the waiver in hand will allow them to depart knowing they almost certainly will be allowed to return, officials said. The agency is also seeking to cut down wait times for immigrants overseas to only a few weeks.
“Finally — an opportunity,” said one American citizen in North Carolina who has been married for seven years to an illegal immigrant from Honduras. The woman said she wept Friday when she heard the news of the waiver proposal.
The couple owns a construction business and has four children who are citizens. They tried to apply for his legal documents, she said, but immigration lawyers advised them that if he left for Honduras to pick up a visa, he would be unable to return for 10 years. “If you try to come out of the shadows, your family will suffer,” the lawyers told her.
Now they will start his application again, said the woman, who remained reluctant to publish her name until the new rule takes effect.
“We can’t survive without each other,” she said. “I should have a right as a U.S. citizen to live in my country with my husband.”
Republicans criticized the move as an effort by Mr. Obama to circumvent Congress. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called it “an abuse of administrative powers.” Mr. Smith was an author of legislation in 1996 that created the 3- and 10-year bars to return by illegal immigrants.
Nancy Kuznetsov, a leader of American Families United [ http://www.americanfamiliesunited.org/ ], a group of Americans who are struggling in the immigration system, said many members called her Friday, elated.
“Yay!” said Mrs. Kuznetsov, who was separated [ http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/share-your-immigration-story/ ] for more than four years from her husband, Vitali, who is from Belarus, while waiting for a waiver. “There are so many families this will be a good thing for, I feel good in my heart that this is finally happening.”
*
Related
Times Topic: Immigration and Emigration
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration-and-emigration/index.html
*
Related in Opinion
Editorial: A Common-Sense Immigration Move (January 7, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/opinion/a-common-sense-immigration-move.html
*
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/path-to-green-card-for-illegal-immigrant-family-members-of-americans.html [with comments]
===
Obama's immigration move may have political benefit on 2 fronts
Under President Obama, the U.S. has deported a record number of illegal immigrants. A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center last month showed that 59% of Latinos disapproved of his handling of deportations.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press / January 6, 2012)
President Obama's plan to ease rules for some illegal immigrants is likely to shore up his standing among crucial Latino voters while igniting a new fight with Republicans as he seeks reelection.
By Peter Nicholas, Washington Bureau
January 6, 2012, 8:19 p.m.
Reporting from Washington— President Obama moved to repair relations with a crucial voting bloc and opened another battle with Republican lawmakers by easing rules on the politically volatile issue of illegal immigration.
His proposal will probably affect tens of thousands — perhaps more than 100,000 — illegal residents. It would end a requirement that undocumented immigrants with parents or spouses in the United States leave the country first if they wish to file paperwork that would forestall deportation on the grounds of family hardship.
Without the so-called hardship waiver, illegal immigrants are barred from reentering the U.S. for up to 10 years. The existing rule often means that people seeking waivers must separate from their families for months or in some cases years while their applications are processed.
Under the new rule, which does not require congressional approval, immigrants would be allowed to stay in the U.S. and apply for a waiver, which can be granted if deporting an immigrant would cause undue hardship to his or her U.S. family. Once waivers are granted, immigrants may apply for green cards. They would still have to leave the U.S. to make those applications, but because they would have hardship waivers in hand, they would be very likely to gain readmission to the country.
About 23,000 immigrants annually use the existing system. Many travel to Ciudad Juarez just over the border from El Paso — and one of Mexico's most dangerous cities — to file their applications and often are stuck there for extended periods. Administration officials expect many more people to apply for waivers once such trips are unnecessary.
The move left Republicans infuriated. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the new rule along with other moves by the president had "granted back-door amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants without a vote of Congress."
Latino groups, many of which have been highly critical of Obama for failing to move aggressively on immigration issues, were delighted. The administration's move is a "sensible and compassionate proposal [that] helps bring much-needed sanity to an often senseless process," said Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, which describes itself as the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy group.
Both reactions were welcomed at the White House. Obama's aides have been eager to highlight the difference between the president and Republicans on immigration issues, knowing he has little to lose — the conservative voters who are most deeply concerned about illegal immigration have little likelihood of voting for him — and much to gain.
Obama won two-thirds of the Latino vote in the 2008 presidential race, according to exit polls, and he needs a similar margin in November to win reelection. Campaign strategists have identified several paths to capturing the 270 electoral votes he needs: All require a strong showing among Latino voters to win swing states including Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
Disquiet over Obama's immigration policies has jeopardized his support among Latino voters. Under Obama, the government has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants. And he has failed to persuade Congress to overhaul the immigration system and provide a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million living in the U.S. illegally, despite a promise that he would address the issue in his first year in office.
A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center last month showed that 59% of Latinos disapproved of Obama's handling of deportations although it also showed the president running far ahead of the Republican presidential candidates. The Republicans have been competing for the toughest rhetoric against illegal immigration as they jockey for the support of the conservative voters who dominate the party's primaries.
The move on immigration followed a pattern the administration has relied on recently of aggressively using executive action to achieve goals that have been stuck in Congress. Earlier this week, Obama used his power to fill job vacancies during congressional recesses to name a chief for the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to fill three slots on the National Labor Relations Board.
Last year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the government would use discretion before deporting illegal immigrants. The aim would be to target felons and "public safety threats" but limit deportations of students and people who've lived here since childhood, officials said.
"If 2011 was the White House's attempt to win back the center, 2012 is about mobilizing the base," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a group that advocates an immigration overhaul. "They are realizing that they need a huge turnout of Latino votes in Florida and in the West."
peter.nicholas@latimes.com
*
Also
Obama rule would let undocumented stay in U.S. during application
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-immigration-regulation-20120105,0,2762934.story
U.S. launches new hotline for immigration detainees
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/feds-create-new-hotline-form-for-immigration-detainees.html
Immigration laws pose a test of states' rights in Supreme Court
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-courts-20111229,0,2286951.story
Protecting illegal immigrants, state by state
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-states-20111212,0,3733324.story
*
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-immigration-20120107,0,5923586.story [with comments]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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