So a federal judge in Texas appointed by George W. Bush has put a hold on President Obama’s Executive Order on immigration.
The good ole’ boys I debated a few weeks ago from my hometown must be cheering. One of their most passionate complaints about Obama is that he had opened the flood gates to “illegals” coming into the country (meaning “Mexicans,” of course).
So here are a few facts about immigration they won’t hear on Fix News, but which are necessary for anyone wanting to understand what is actually going on.
There were 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2012, a total unchanged from 2009, (Preliminary estimates show the unauthorized immigrate population was 11.3 million in 2013.) The number of unauthorized immigrants peaked in 2007.
Mexicans make up about half of all unauthorized immigrants (52%), which is down from a high of 57%.
62 percent of undocumented immigrants have been living in the United States for 10 years or longer, and a full 88 percent have been living in the United States for five years or longer.
52 percent of undocumented immigrants have a high school diploma or higher and 15 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Less than one in five immigrants live in poverty, and they are no more likely to use social services than the native-born Americans.
As of 2013, the Obama administration had removed nearly 2 million immigrants, the highest number under any president.
With these facts as a context, let’s review what the presidential Executive Order would actually do and not do. As you will see, it is quite modest, perhaps too much so.
It would do the following:
1. It would offer a legal reprieve to the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who’ve resided in the country for at least five
years. This would remove the constant threat of deportation. Many could also receive work permits.
2. It would expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed young immigrants, under 30 years old, who arrived as children to apply for a deportation deferral and who are now here legally. Immigrants older than 30 now qualify, as do more recent arrivals. (People in both groups would have to reapply every three years.)
3. Sets up a program to facilitate visas for people who invest in the United States and those who pursue science, technology, engineering and math degrees.
4. Would modify federal immigrant detention procedures.
5. Would add resources to strengthen security at the border.
It would NOT do the following:
1. Extend protections to hundreds of thousands of parents of young immigrants who participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — a group totaling 671,000 people.
2. Grant migrant farm workers legal protections other undocumented workers wouldn’t have.
3. Expand the existing H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreigners.
4. Offer access to the Affordable Care Act for newly protected immigrants.
These are facts anyone can verify for themselves. But that is not something conservatives like to do. They would rather make up stuff or pass along information that fits their prejudices without knowing if it is true or not.
But if taken seriously what these facts make clear is that immigration is not a simple thing. It isn’t just about people following immigration laws. It’s about families split apart for years because some are living here and some are not wanting to be together, about children born to undocumented parents getting to stay here, about those children who have become young adults, many leaders in their high school, wanting to go to college and drive a car legally, about parents providing for their children and those children having a chance to show they can make good with their lives.
The long and short of it is that immigration is about people’s lives, which is why it is ulitmately a moral issue, not a political one. It is also why those who complain about Presiden Obama’s “overreach” on this issue must – must – offer an serious alternative.
Otherwise they are guilty of political expediency and moral corwardice.
linnposts.com 