President Halts Deportation Of Dream Act Students, Storm Clouds Loom
President Obama held a press conference announcing an order granting Dream Act Eligible Students a specific opportunity to halt their deportation proceedings under a special program called "prosecutorial discretion". Students who are in removal proceedings as well as students who have yet to be found by ICE can take advantage of the program.
The order comes in the form of a memorandum (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s1-exercising-prosecutorial-discretion-individuals-who-came-to-us-as-children.pdf) issued by Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security. A prior memorandum issued by John Morton, Head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and known as the "Morton Memorandum" was criticized by rank and file ICE agents and generally ignored.
Napolitano stated in the most recent memorandum: "Our Nation' s immigration laws must be enforced in a strong and sensible manner. They are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Indeed, many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways."
Napolitano said the order should be implemented within 60 days, likely addressing criticism of the Morton Memorandum which was implemented slowly and in some jurisdictions, not at all. Presuming the order is followed, youths must meet strict guidelines in order to qualify. They will have to apply as the program will be implemented on a "case by case" basis.
The guidelines are:
The guidelines are as follows:
1.) Came to the United States under the age of sixteen;
2.) Have continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding today's date, June 15th, 2012 and who are in the United States .on June 12th, 2012;
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati