President Obama\u2019s announcement that he would halt deportations of undocumented youth and give them work permits, offered a glimpse of hope to undocumented students in Arizona, who are still awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on SB 1070, a bill that essentially criminalizes their most basic human aspirations.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rodriguez, an organizer from the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, expressed cautious optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very concrete step that will offer relief to undocumented youth,\u201d he said, \u201c[but the] devil is in the details.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, 26, added that, while the announcement brings hope, it also creates a climate that could make people vulnerable to con artists who may try to take advantage of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community needs to be ready,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t let yourself or your family be victims of fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s new policy\u2014which bypassed Congressional approval\u2014would benefit undocumented students who can prove they are under 30-years-old, and that they came to the country before the age of 16. They also must have graduated from high school or have a GED.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes no sense to expel talented young people who for all intents and purposes are Americans,\u201d Obama said. \u201cThey have been raised as Americans [and they] understand themselves to be part of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the change won\u2019t grant citizenship to these young people, many see it as a positive step forward, including Dulce Matuz\u2014a member of the coalition who was recently selected as one of Time Magazine\u2019s \u201c100 Most Influential People\u201d for her activism.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we need to focus on working on our parents, who also need relief,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Matuz, 27, heard the news while protesting with undocumented youth outside an immigration detention center in Los Angeles, where several undocumented youths were being held for deportation.<\/p>\n
She said she hopes the Obama administration will keep its promise this time\u2014in sharp contrast to what she and many others see as the administration\u2019s abandonment of its June 2011 memo recommending the use of prosecutorial discretion to halt deportations of undocumented immigrants with ties to the community and no criminal history.<\/p>\n
The memo has served as a guideline, but Matuz and other critics say it has not been implemented adequately and that, in practice, prosecutorial discretion is difficult to oversee or review.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this [time] is different,\u201d Matuz said.<\/p>\n
The announced shift in policy represents the most significant step taken on immigration policy in the U.S. in the past decade.
\nIt is also the first victory for the \u201cDREAMers,\u201d those young activists who have been pushing for passage of the federal DREAM Act\u2014a bill that would provide a path to legalization for qualifying, undocumented youth who are enrolled in college or the military.<\/p>\n
Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy and advocacy at the Center for American Progress, believes that the administration\u2019s announcement will precede a real shift in immigration policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that this administration has turned a page and it\u2019s willing to write the next chapter of the immigration debate,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the end of the day, Congress needs to stop hiding behind its desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelley participated in a teleconference with journalist Jos\u00e9 Antonio Vargas, who \u201ccame out\u201d as an undocumented immigrant in a nationally discussed article in The New York Times last year.<\/p>\n
Vargas\u2019 appearance\u2014with roughly 30 undocumented youth\u2014on the cover of Time magazine preceded the president\u2019s announcement by one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school. I was one of them,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cNow those 65,000 students that graduate from high school are going to start to dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, held a press conference immediately after the president\u2019s announcement, denouncing it as \u201coutrageous\u201d and accusing the president of trying to \u201cgrant back-door amnesty\u201d to undocumented students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a cynic to recognize this action for what it is; blatant political pandering,\u201d she said. \u201cLikewise, it\u2019s no coincidence [that] all of this comes on the eve of a long-awaited decision by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Arizona\u2019s ability to assist with the enforcement of immigration law via SB 1070.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2010, Brewer signed SB 1070, Arizona\u2019s controversial immigration law that was the first to make it a state crime to be undocumented.
\nSince then, similar laws have been enacted in five other states.<\/p>\n
When a federal court blocked key parts of Arizona\u2019s law, Brewer appealed the decision, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The high court is expected to rule on the case in several days.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s policy change could provide relief from deportation to as many as 1.4 million non-citizens under the age of 30, according to estimates released Friday by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Migration Policy Institute.<\/p>\n
The change would not grant permanent legal status or citizenship to young people, but would give them \u201cdeferred action\u201d\u2014a way to allow them to continue their military service or begin their careers. The grant of deferred action will be issued on a case-by-case basis and is renewable every two years.<\/p>\n
For students like Rodr\u00edguez, this is only the beginning. All eyes in the United States\u2014especially Arizona\u2014are now looking to the Supreme Court, which will rule on the four parts of SB 1070 that are currently on hold because of concerns about constitutionality.<\/p>\n
Some legal observers expect the justices to reinstate the \u201cPapers, please\u201d portion of the law, which would make it mandatory for police to ask for legal documents during routine stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll be more cases of people being pulled over for racial profiling, so we should prepare for that,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cThat is why we need this [new policy] and should continue to push the administration for a broader change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Obama\u2019s announcement that he would halt deportations of undocumented youth and give them work permits, offered a glimpse of hope to undocumented students in Arizona, who are still awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on SB 1070, a bill that essentially criminalizes their most basic human aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1689,126,1690,1688,287],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arizona-dream-act-coalition","tag-dream-act","tag-jose-antonio-vargas","tag-president-obama","tag-sb-1070","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n