NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
By Albor Ruiz
October 7, 2012
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/a-forum-obama-dreamers-queens-article-1.1176023#ixzz28lCfHsFo
Strangely enough, immigration was completely ignored during the first presidential debate, but that does not mean it has gone away as a domestic issue of vital importance for Latino voters.
That'’s why young immigrants and their friends and relatives should not miss the opportunity to learn how President Obama’'s program for undocumented youth really works at a very important event that will take place Sunday at LaGuardia Community College, beginning at 11 am.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Queens/Manhattan) joins with Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), a tireless worker for immigration reform, and Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, to conduct a community forum on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Those in attendance will receive precise information about the new policy and where to get legal help with their applications. Hong will also discuss the outlook for immigration reform.
As you may remember, on June 15, President Obama announced his decision to stop deporting young undocumented immigrants and grant them two-year renewable temporary work permits as long as they fulfill certain conditions, similar to those required to qualify for the DREAM Act. The policy went into effect two months later.
Nearly 1 million young people, brought to this country as children by their parents, could benefit from the President'’s decision.
“"Since the policy went into effect on August 15, the New York Immigration Coalition has received thousands of requests for assistance from potential applicants and community members,”" Hong said. “"Together with our legal partners, we have provided free or low-cost legal services to nearly 1,000 potential applicants.”"
Not that his chances of becoming the next president are so great, but, just in case, last week’'s comments by Mitt Romney'’s campaign that, if elected, he won'’t grant deferred action to new dreamers, makes it even more urgent for young people to learn how to take advantage of this program.
In a widely circulated interview with The Denver Post, Romney said last Monday that those who receive temporary work permits and are allowed to stay in the country under Obama'’s program for immigrant youth would not be deported if he were elected president.
“The people who have received the special visa that the President has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid. "I’'m not going to take something that they’'ve purchased,"” Romney said in an apparent softening of the harsh anti-immigration stance he had maintained all along in the primaries. “"Before those visas have expired, we will have the full immigration reform plan that I'’ve proposed."”
The program, though, neither involves a visa nor does it grant legal status to those who qualify.
Yet, in typical Romney flip-flopping fashion, it took only one day for his campaign, to “clarify” his comments. "A President Romney," his campaign told The Boston Globe on Tuesday, “"would honor deportation exemptions issued by the Obama administration before his inauguration but would not grant new ones after taking office.”"
In other words, after January 20, 2013, no new dreamers need apply which, for all practical purposes, means that the future of the great majority of the almost 1 million people eligible to benefit from the program, would be squashed by a President Romney. Maybe he will want them to self-deport?
As Frank Sharry, America's Voice executive director, said: “"At least he finally came clean, and the choice is clearer than ever. A vote for Romney is a vote against the dreamers.”"
LaGuardia Community College is located at 31-10 Thomson Avenue (enter Community Entrance on Van Dam St. and 47th Ave.), in Long Island City.
No comments:
Post a Comment