Administrative DREAM Act Guidance Puts Illegal Immigrants Ahead of Americans

Administrative DREAM Act Guidance Puts Illegal Immigrants Ahead of Americans

Washington, D.C. – The Department of Homeland Security today issued implementation guidance for the Administration’s DREAM Act amnesty to stop deporting and begin giving work permits to potentially millions of illegal immigrants. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) criticized the Obama administration’s announcement in the statement below.

Chairman Smith:  “Today’s deferred action guidance is another example of how the President’s policies put the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. In order to process the millions of applications from illegal immigrants, the Obama administration will have to divert funding and other resources from processing legal immigration applications. This will lead to a backlog for legal immigrants who followed the rules, while allowing lawbreakers to skip to the front of the line.
“The lack of specific standards for employees processing the applications is an open invitation to fraud, especially because the Administration is allowing illegal immigrants to submit third party affidavits as proof of at least one of the DREAM Act requirements. Potentially millions of illegal immigrants will apply for the Administration’s amnesty and the American taxpayers are the ones who will be forced to foot the bill.
“On the same day the unemployment rate rose to 8.3%, the Obama administration announced a requirement for illegal immigrants to apply to be able to work in the U.S.  The Administration’s guidelines don’t just encourage illegal immigrants to work in the U.S.– they actually require them to apply to do so.  This is a slap in the face to the 23 million unemployed or underemployed Americans. American workers should not have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs and American taxpayers should not have to pay for President Obama’s amnesty agenda.
“Today’s guidance undermines the rule of law and gives lawbreakers an unfair advantage over legal immigrants. When will this President’s assault on the rule of law and the American people end?”

Background: In June, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will stop deporting and begin giving work permits to illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and who are younger than 30 – among other criteria. 

The guidance issued today clarifies that beginning August 15, 2012, individuals will be able to request deferred action consideration by submitting a request to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The only fees associated with DREAM Act applicants will be the standard $380 fee to process an employment authorization application and the $85 fee that is charged to all immigrants to cover the cost of the biometric check. There will be no additional fee for the processing of a DREAM Act amnesty application, so USCIS will be forced to put off processing legal immigration applications in favor of the illegal immigrant applications.  As a result, there will be a backlog of legal immigration applications. Once illegal immigrants are granted deferred action under the new policy, they can apply for a work permit. And this Administration routinely grants work authorization to illegal immigrants 90 percent of the time.

Following the Administration’s announcement in June, Chairman Smith sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he provide the Committee with any legal opinions from the Justice Department regarding the constitutionality of the Administration’s amnesty.  Chairman Smith also sent a letter to USCIS Director Mayorkas and a letter to ICE Director Morton requesting that they provide the Committee with answers to questions about how the Administration will prevent fraud in the processing and implementation of this amnesty, among other things. He awaits substantive responses to the letters.