At 5:00 PM, Pacific Time (8:00 PM, Eastern Time) tonight, Obama will announce his long overdue Executive Action on Immigration.
Here is the preview of the terms of Executive Action and who will be eligible.
Up to four million undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years can apply for a program that protects them from deportation and allows those with no criminal record to work legally in the country.
An additional one million people will get protection from deportation through other parts of the president’s plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration enforcement system, including the expansion of an existing program for “Dreamers,” young immigrants who came to the United States as children. There will no longer be a limit on the age of the people who qualify.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a program that allows certain immigrants who were brought into the country as children to stay and work on a temporary basis. Of the nation’s 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants in 2012, about 1.2 million were eligible for the program. The Obama administration is considering expanding eligibility to an estimated 700,000 additional people.
The Obama administration is expected to extend protections to live and work in the United States to as many as 3.3 million parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents, and it could further extend them to parents of DACA-eligible children.
If all of the more extensive expansion scenarios for children and parents listed above were put into place, roughly an additional five million unauthorized immigrants would be extended temporary protections, leaving more than six million unaffected.
Immigration advocates rallied behind Mr. Obama’s actions, describing them as a much-delayed victory for millions of people.
NY Times
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