The Obama administration announced Thursday it plans to focus its deportation efforts on more dangerous undocumented immigrants, a move that gives undocumented Charlotte students like Elver Barrios hope.
As part of the policy change, the Department of Homeland Security intends to review the cases of approximately 300,000 undocumented immigrants facing deportation orders.
Those without criminal records who are found to be a low priority because they are students, were brought here as children, or have long family ties to the country could be released and granted a work permit.
If Barrios were ever to be arrested, he believes this policy change could allow him to stay in the country he's lived in since he was 14.
“This could be my chance to stay here,” said Barrios, 20, who graduated from West Mecklenburg High School and is originally from Guatemala. “Every day I go out, even when I go buy the groceries, I risk getting arrested.”
The policy change comes at a time when President Barack Obama has come under fire from some of his greatest allies.
Latino advocates have grown increasingly frustrated with the president. Obama has promised to reform the nation's immigration laws, yet advocates say his administration has continued to allow thousands to be deported annually after being arrested for minor offenses.
The Department of Homeland Security must focus its resources on removing those who have been convicted of major crimes and are threats to national security or public safety, said Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“Doing otherwise hinders our public safety mission – clogging immigration court dockets and diverting DHS enforcement resources away from the individuals who pose a threat to public safety,” she wrote in a letter to a group of senators supporting new immigration legislation.
Critics charged the Obama administration with implementing a back-door amnesty policy.
Under the guise of setting priorities for immigration enforcement, the White House is overhauling the nation's immigration policy without congressional approval, said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, which advocates for greater immigration enforcement.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said having a backlog and prioritizing deportations is nothing new.
“This policy goes a step further granting illegal immigrants a fast track to gaining a work permit where they will now unfairly compete with more than nine percent of Americans who are still looking for jobs,” he said in a statement.
In June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it was encouraging agents to use “prosecutorial discretion” for undocumented immigrants who are seeking college degrees.
The authorities are now instructed to give “particular care and consideration” to individuals “present in the United States since childhood” and whether that person has a criminal record.
Erick Velazquillo, a 22-year-old Central Piedmont Community College student, was brought to the country illegally when he was 2 years old. He was placed into deportation proceedings last fall after he was arrested for driving without a valid driver's license.
Last month, just weeks before he was expecting to be deported, immigration officials dropped their deportation case.
But they didn't alter his status. With this policy change, Velazquillo is hopeful he can rest a little easier – and be able to get a work permit.
“It gives me a status that I've never had before,” he said. “It will give me a work permit. It will help me to contribute more to the country than just being here. It would make things so much easier.”
Lacey Williams, the youth civic engagement organizer at the Latin American Coalition, questioned how the policy will be implemented.
“At first blush it's great news, it certainly has great potential,” she said. “What we're anxiously awaiting is how this announcement will trickle down. How will it affect people in deportation proceedings now? What will happen to them tomorrow, next week?”
Others said the administration is trying to dress up a problem rather than fix it.
Velazquillo and other undocumented students still will be living in the country illegally, said Domenic Powell, a spokesman for the Raleigh-based NC Dream Team, a group of students who advocate for undocumented youth.
“It's not a solution,” he said. “There seems to be a benefit to it, but it's fleeting. They can work, but for how long? They need to find a permanent solution.”
The Associated Press contributed.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.