On Nov. 20, President Barack Obama announced a series of executive actions to attempt to improve the United States’ immigration enforcement system, which will be put into effect within 90 days.
“Even as we are a nation of immigrants, we’re also a nation of laws,” Obama said during his speech.
Obama stated that his order will provide additional resources for law enforcement guarding the border, make it easier for immigrants who have contributed to U.S. society through business and education to continue to do so, and will outline necessary steps to responsibly deal with undocumented immigrants who do not obey the country’s laws.
“Undocumented workers broke our immigration laws, and I believe that they must be held accountable, especially those who may be dangerous,” he said. “We’re going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons, not families.”
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Assistant Professor George Bass said the President’s order will focus on deporting immigrants who are committing crimes or are negatively impacting society, rather than those who are actively benefitting the nation.
“The President has been talking about this issue for a long time. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives was unwilling and unable to find common ground on the issue,” he said. “I think it’s silly to spend our resources hunting down children who were brought here by their parents and don’t speak their native languages. [The new policy] is a step in the right direction.”
Immigrants who have resided in the U.S. for more than five years, have children who are citizens or legal residents, register and pass criminal background checks and are willing to pay taxes, will be permitted to submit a request to remain in the country without risk of deportation for three-year time period. They may reapply after each term.
One of the actions includes extending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program from two to three years. The program is for children who came to the U.S. before turning 16 and for those who have lived in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2010. DACA was created in 2012 to allow children who meet specific guidelines to submit a request to be allowed to stay in the U.S. for a two-year term, which could be reinstated once the term is complete.
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Professor Gary Gershman, who studies constitutional law and history, said that the policy is a short-term fix for a problem that needs a long-term solution.
“What we need is wholesale immigration reform that’s passed by Congress and signed by the president. The policy doesn’t solve the problem; it just helps fix parts of it,” he said. “The government doesn’t have the financial resources to deport 11 million people, so he took the group of about 5 million [undocumented immigrants] and decided not to remove them because it just doesn’t make sense.”
The action does not apply to recent or future immigrants and does not interfere with Congress’s regulations; it simply means that immigrants who meet those criteria will not automatically be deported. Because the order is not an official law, the policy may be changed if Congress comes to a decision as to their standpoint on the immigration issue and when a new president is inaugurated in 2016.
Bass said there are a lot of lies and myths that get tied up in the immigration debate and that this is a good time for students to question what the immigration policy says.
“If you’re going to understand the rights and responsibilities of being an American citizen, you should understand what those rights and responsibilities are built upon,” he said. “Most of the immigrants are coming here because they need a job, they want to send money back home and they want to make lives for themselves, not because they want to stay forever.”
