A policy directive was issued Friday stating that some undocumented relatives of U.S. service members can now secure legal status. This nine page long memorandum is followed by the series of changes in the nation’s broken immigration system made by President Obama since he took office. The department already had the power to stop such deportations; however, the latest memo defines its scope and functions.
USCIS officials will now have the power to parole in place immigrant parents, spouses and children of the current U.S. service members, veterans and reservists. According to the change, these individuals can now apply to secure legal status in the United States.
The President is now making minor changes to the broken immigration system since the hopes of overhauling the immigration law are non-existent this year. As a presidential candidate, Obama had pledged twice to pass immigration reforms. He has repeatedly announced that immigration reform is his top priority.
The President had asked the USCIS to deport serious criminal offenders and at the same time introduced the DACA program for kids brought into U.S. illegally and grew up here. The Democrat controlled Senate passed the immigration reform bill which the GOP controlled House is not ready to take up for a vote. House GOP has criticized the administrative changes.
All the White House can now do is introduce minor administrative changes in the immigration policies.
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The Comprehensive Immigration Reform is dead this year. House speaker John Boehner clearly stated this Wednesday that the House will not negotiate with the Senate to solve differences between the Senate Bill and the House Bill.
John Boehner does not intend to go for conference on this issue. In addition, the conservatives are afraid of adopting the piecemeal approach towards immigration reform fearing that a House-Senate conference committee would demand a compromise where the Senate bill might win.
The House piecemeal immigration bills mostly will deal with border security and other issues but not a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. The Democrats are pushing for immigration reform while the Republicans are not in the mood to embrace the idea at all.
Boehner earlier said that the House won’t take the Senate immigration bill up for a vote which has support in the House with limited GOP support. The support of majority of House Republicans is needed for any bill to pass including one from the House-Senate conference committee. However, his Wednesday’s statement has made it clear that the GOP is not ready to even consider this step let alone pass it in the House.
Playing the cards carefully, the White House press secretary Jay Carney welcomed the GOP’s step to devise their own version of immigration reform. The White House has been urging Boehner to let the House process with its own version of comprehensive immigration reform.
Despite being sidelined by issues such as Syria, Obamacare and Budget problems, President Obama has been pushing for immigration reform. The President has already net with business and religious leaders to push for it.
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Immigration reform advocates still believe that a bill can begin to be debated in the Congress by the end of the year despite the few legislative days on hand. Pro immigration reform advocates believe that a majority of the Republicans agree to the reform; however, a conservative anti immigration reform minority is holding the GOP hostage.
In addition, the business lobby including people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg has been vocal about their support for immigration reform. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Bill Gates explained that a workforce consisting of the world’s brightest minds including engineers and scientists need to work for US companies.
Other supports believe that both high skilled and low skilled talent is critical to sustain the country’s global competitiveness in fields like hospitality and tourism, technology, healthcare and manufacturing. It is important that the immigration policy is open enough to provide opportunities to attract the brightest hard working minds to enter the workforce legally and keeping them in the US.
Immigration reform advocates include the Catholic Church, the Evangelists, businessmen, agriculture lobby and several big and small individual organizations. These are working hard to push members of the GOP to act on this issue to take up the bill for a house vote towards granting the 11 million immigrants an earned pathway to citizenship.
Many immigration reform advocates including House representatives like Luis Gutierrez are optimistic about getting the bill to be taken up for a vote in the House.
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easyIME.com is a free service, which streamlines the immigration medical process for green card aspirants by helping them locate the right USCIS Physician and schedule their green card medical exam online. Green card aspirants can also find immigration lawyers near their zip code through this service.
