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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Deportation Reprieve May Exclude Parents of Young Immigrants

New York Times
By Julia Preston
November 19, 2014

Every time Berzabeth Valdez heads out to work from her mobile home on the outskirts of Houston, it crosses her mind that she might not come back.
 
Ms. Valdez, 48, is a Mexican immigrant who has been living in Texas for 11 years without legal papers, and so without a driver’s license. For her commute to her job as a restaurant manager, she keeps her taillights in working order and never speeds.
 
“We are terrified of the police,” Ms. Valdez said. “One traffic ticket could end in deportation. I could lose my whole life, everything I have gained for my family.”
 
One of Ms. Valdez’s daughters grew tired of living with those fears and joined an organization of young undocumented immigrants. The youths, who call themselves Dreamers, won protection from deportation from President Obama in 2012 and continued to press him to extend those measures to others in the country illegally.
 
On Thursday, Mr. Obama will announce changes to the immigration enforcement system that will allow as many as five million immigrants to remain and work legally. But the youths will face a bittersweet ending, because White House officials have decided to leave out their parents, according to advocates familiar with the plans.
 
Carolina Canizales, left, and her mother Maria Canizales at Carolina’s graduation from the University of Texas in May 2012. Credit Diana Canizales
 
“It’s getting so hard to call my mom,” said MarĂ­a Fernanda Cabello, 23, Ms. Valdez’s activist daughter. “I’ve had to tell her, ‘There is a victory coming, and I don’t know if you’re part of it.’ ”
 
Mr. Obama will grant deportation reprieves to undocumented parents whose children are American citizens and legal permanent residents if they have lived in the country for five years and have not committed serious crimes, administration officials said. Officials say the president can exercise prosecutorial discretion to avoid breaking up the families of children entitled to be in the country and to steer enforcement agents toward deporting criminals and foreigners who pose national security threats.
 
But some senior administration officials have argued that it would be more difficult both legally and politically to make the case for including parents of immigrants in the existing program for young people who came when they were children, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Since that program is based on executive action by Mr. Obama, the youths have deportation deferrals and work permits but no green cards or any other visa or formal immigration status, which only Congress can confer. Their parents’ claim for relief is weaker, the officials said.
 
The president is facing angry opposition from Republicans to his new initiatives. Calling Mr. Obama’s plans “executive amnesty,” Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an outspoken adversary, accused him of seizing sole power to decide who can live and work in the United States. “Surrendering to illegality is not an option,” Mr. Sessions said.
 
Republicans are considering different ways to stop funding for the president’s new measures and for the existing DACA program.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
 

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