Barack Obama’s deliberate plan to destroy America takes another leap forward today with the implementation of a new “immigration initiative” which will offer more than 1.2 million young illegal immigrants the right to legally stay and work in the country.
According to a news report, “Advocacy groups have planned public celebrations, legal aid seminars and other events in major cities to herald a plan that has sparked rejoicing and relief in immigrant communities, and anger among Republicans who view it as a White House ploy for Latino support in an election year and a backdoor amnesty that usurps congressional authority.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which will review the applications, is expecting about 1.2 million applications on top of the 6 million it normally adjudicates for citizenship, residency and work visas every year, officials said. That’s up from 800,000 expected when Obama announced the plan in June.
Advocacy groups estimate that more than 1.7 million teens and young adults may be eligible, although it’s unknown how many will apply or how quickly. Those granted approval will be given legal authorization to work and a two-year deferral from deportation.
The program was designed and rolled out in 60 days — breakneck speed for a federal agency.
“It is going to be a huge challenge,” said Doris Meissner, who was head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993 to 2000. “The start-off will be very important. How it is handled and the time it takes to process them will set the tone.”
Under the program, undocumented immigrants younger than 31 who came to the United States before the age of 16 are eligible if they are enrolled in school, graduated from high school or served in the U.S. armed forces, and have no criminal record, among other criteria.
Getting a work permit allows an immigrant to obtain a valid Social Security number, apply for a driver’s license, open a bank account and other important benefits.
When he unveiled the plan two months ago, Obama called it “a temporary stopgap measure” rather than a solution.
An application for an undocumented farmworker to apply for legal amnesty under a program signed by President Reagan in 1986 cost the immigration agency $1,130 to process, two members of Congress wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security.
In the past, not charging enough to review applications has “resulted in an enormous backlog of legal immigration benefits applications and very long processing wait times for legal immigrants and aspiring U.S. citizens,” wrote Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
On Tuesday, Smith denounced the deferral program as a “magnet for fraud and abuse” designed to shore up Latino support for Obama. “There seems to be little if any mechanism in place for vetting fraudulent applications and documentation submitted by illegal immigrants,” Smith said in a statement.
“There has been a tremendous response,” said Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, an advocacy organization in Seattle. The group has hired two extra lawyers to help handle a flood of requests for legal assistance.
