What will President Mitt Romney do about DREAMers?
Path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is a mirage: Unless the apocalypse happens before election day, I am 100% positive that President Barack Obama will be reelected. Then, the DREMers can hope that the DACA program will be renewed. There is also hope that the president might provide further help to them and other undocumented immigrants already in the country by executive orders (though they are not permanent). Comprehensive immigration reform will definitely not happen because Democrats are unlikely to have majorities in Congress to do that. In any case, many immigrants fail to realize that at this time Americans are simply not united in their support for an amnesty to illegal immigrants. About two in five Americans support giving a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants but at the same time, almost three in five supported the Arizona "show me your papers" laws. The support for DACA was by a two-to-one margin. Due to this conflicted positions among the minds of voters, and very strong opposition to any amnesty among the GOP lawmakers, the most that is likely is a version of Marco Rubio vision of a long-term non-immigrant visa for those who came as children and have excelled in education, served in the Military, and stayed away from criminal activities. They will not be eligible for standard green cards. It is also clear that all other illegal immigrants will continue to live the way they are. Unfortunately many advocates of these causes are merely keeping themselves in business by lobbying for reform creating hope but the reality is that as much as some Democrats have the political will, there just aren't enough votes in Congress, and as American economy stays in a long-term slump, more and more Americans will oppose any addition to the pool of people eligible for government benefits like Social Security and Medicare.
Mitt Romney may kill DACA: A lot of you have been wondering -- and some of you have been wondering so much that you have not even applied for DACA -- what will happen to the deferrals on deportations and the work permits were Romney to be elected to the White House. I have hypothesized that while as the president, Mitt Romney will have to legal authority to shut down the program and invalidate deferrals and work permits. Contrary to what many DREAMers wrongly believe, there are no guarantees that their authorization to work cannot be revoked or that they cannot be deported (in fact, as many people have been saying, deportations will be a lot easier with all the information about the applicants in the databases, including the fingerprints). The probability of that happening is relatively low, though, unless the courts declare the program to be unconstitutional. The political fallout from that will be huge, so Romney might simply let the program die.
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Romney to emphasize self deportation and limited number of temporary visas: Romney, despite being highly educated and having worked as a management consultant, who would otherwise be a stickler for details, has stayed away from providing details on immigration as well. At the Univision meeting, he basically did not say much about what he would do but if I can parse his words, he is basically saying that he does not plan to order law enforcement officers, ICE, and Border Patrol to round up people, put them in jail, and then deport them. Everyone knows that not only that sounds inhumane, despite widespread support for cracking down on illegal immigrants, America simply does not have the resources (both financial and manpower) to do that. A more effective option is what Romney has called as "self deportation." As funny as it sounds, it has already been going on for quite some time now. As immigrants realize that they have no path to a legal status and will always be living in the shadows under the fear of being caught, they simply pack up and leave. And the way the smartest employees leave a troubled company first, it is the most ambitious, driven, and successful immigrants who have self-deported and found excellent jobs as executives in their native countries now that they have had excellent education, are bilingual, and can easily do business around the world. Romney captured that sentiment popular among many Americans, “I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home and that’s what I mean by self deportation. People decide if they want to go back to their country of origin and get in line legally to be able to come to this country....I also believe we should have temporary work visas consistent with the needs of the employment community.”
Romney supports STEM green cards: These sentiments are just a more politically correct version of GOP thinking that he shared in that secretly recorded video at a fundraiser in Florida. At that event, he said, "Gosh, I'd love to bring in more legal immigrants that have skill ... I'd like to staple a green card to every Ph.D. (he was referring to a plan to give an automatic green card to STEM graduates, meaning brilliant foreign-born students who graduate with a masters degree in science, technology, Math, or engineering from a US university) in the world and say, 'Come to America, we want you here.' Instead, we make it hard for people who get educated here or elsewhere to make this their home. Unless, of course, you have no skill or experience, in which case you're welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life. It's very strange." Obviously this does not benefit any undocumented immigrants.
Update: Romney announces that Obama DREAMer work permits will be honored by him but no word on whether the DACA program will be renewed.
Mitt Romney may kill DACA: A lot of you have been wondering -- and some of you have been wondering so much that you have not even applied for DACA -- what will happen to the deferrals on deportations and the work permits were Romney to be elected to the White House. I have hypothesized that while as the president, Mitt Romney will have to legal authority to shut down the program and invalidate deferrals and work permits. Contrary to what many DREAMers wrongly believe, there are no guarantees that their authorization to work cannot be revoked or that they cannot be deported (in fact, as many people have been saying, deportations will be a lot easier with all the information about the applicants in the databases, including the fingerprints). The probability of that happening is relatively low, though, unless the courts declare the program to be unconstitutional. The political fallout from that will be huge, so Romney might simply let the program die.
-->
Romney to emphasize self deportation and limited number of temporary visas: Romney, despite being highly educated and having worked as a management consultant, who would otherwise be a stickler for details, has stayed away from providing details on immigration as well. At the Univision meeting, he basically did not say much about what he would do but if I can parse his words, he is basically saying that he does not plan to order law enforcement officers, ICE, and Border Patrol to round up people, put them in jail, and then deport them. Everyone knows that not only that sounds inhumane, despite widespread support for cracking down on illegal immigrants, America simply does not have the resources (both financial and manpower) to do that. A more effective option is what Romney has called as "self deportation." As funny as it sounds, it has already been going on for quite some time now. As immigrants realize that they have no path to a legal status and will always be living in the shadows under the fear of being caught, they simply pack up and leave. And the way the smartest employees leave a troubled company first, it is the most ambitious, driven, and successful immigrants who have self-deported and found excellent jobs as executives in their native countries now that they have had excellent education, are bilingual, and can easily do business around the world. Romney captured that sentiment popular among many Americans, “I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home and that’s what I mean by self deportation. People decide if they want to go back to their country of origin and get in line legally to be able to come to this country....I also believe we should have temporary work visas consistent with the needs of the employment community.”
Romney supports STEM green cards: These sentiments are just a more politically correct version of GOP thinking that he shared in that secretly recorded video at a fundraiser in Florida. At that event, he said, "Gosh, I'd love to bring in more legal immigrants that have skill ... I'd like to staple a green card to every Ph.D. (he was referring to a plan to give an automatic green card to STEM graduates, meaning brilliant foreign-born students who graduate with a masters degree in science, technology, Math, or engineering from a US university) in the world and say, 'Come to America, we want you here.' Instead, we make it hard for people who get educated here or elsewhere to make this their home. Unless, of course, you have no skill or experience, in which case you're welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life. It's very strange." Obviously this does not benefit any undocumented immigrants.
Update: Romney announces that Obama DREAMer work permits will be honored by him but no word on whether the DACA program will be renewed.
