President's Executive Action on Immigration, 11/20/2014

I have personally prayed and fasted with the dreamers for this moment. I spoke at the rallies at the fast across America for this. I almost got arrested for pushing “immigration reform” at the office of house of representative in my congregational district. Finally all these effort and prayer has come to this announcement!  Great relief but with a sting of disappointment! I was able to obtain the detailed fact sheet regarding this announcement from the White House.

What’s in President Obama’s announcement on November 20, 2014?  He touched on three big areas: 1. more enforcement of US border. 2. Expansion of opportunity for highly educated/skilled and entrepreneurs. 3. Expansion of deferred action for undocumented parents of US citizens and permanent resident children as well as deferred action for additional dreamers.

1 and 2 have been in works all along.  But Number 3 gives real relief to the estimated about 5 million people in the United States.  We will focus on number 3. 

• Expansion of Deferred Action for undocumented parents

Who is eligible?

1. Has been here in US for 5 years;
2. Parents of Citizen or permanent resident (child must have been born prior to November 20, 2014)
3. Must pass criminal background check;
4. Must pay their fair share of taxes.

What are benefits for the three years?

1. Protection from deportation;
2. Authorized to work (work permit) (Social security and Driver license);
3. Travel permit (out of the States)

• Expanded DACA (deferred action) for additional Dreamers for the 3 years.

Expanding DACA to cover additional DREAMERS. Under the initial DACA program,  

Eligible 1) must have lived for the five years in USA since June 15, 2007 2) came as children under 16, 3) met specific education (high school or equivalents) 4) You were under 31 as of 06-15-2012.

• Under expansion:  1), 2), 3) conditions are the same. But now Eligible if entered before January 1, 2010 (instead of June 15, 2007) and it is regardless of how old they are today. 

Real disappointment: undocumented parents of DACA children are not included in this executive order.  (I personally know that this is heart hearting for so many of people)

Other significant benefits:

• Employment authorization of H4 (H1B spouse)
• Expansion of State Side waiver (currently only for the parents, spouse and children under 21 of Citizen) (more details will follow)
• Expansion of STEM OPT extension. (More details will follow)

We will be posting more details, when, and how to implement this executive order as more information becomes available. Please stay tuned.

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