This Date in Obama’s Administrative Amnesty: August 3, 2012

On August 3, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued additional “guidance” on administering President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program. However, closer inspection revealed that the Administration planned on ignoring the criteria it set forth for the amnesty program, referring to the original criteria for eligibility as mere “factors” for consideration. Conspicuously absent from the guidance is any direction as to specific forms of documentation an illegal alien must show to receive deferred action and work authorization.
For instance, the guidance attempted to clarify which crimes that, if convicted of, (such as those the Administration defines as “significant misdemeanors”) will disqualify an alien from receiving deferred action. However, after defining them, the guidance immediately goes on to provide that the Administration may grant deferred action to illegal aliens in spite of them possessing such convictions. The guidance states: “[T]he absence of the criminal history outlined above, or its presence, is not necessarily determinative, but is a factor to be considered in the unreviewable exercise of discretion.”

Additionally, while the guidance confirmed previous reports that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – the agency tasked with administering the application process – will charge illegal aliens a $465 application fee, it neglected to provide a breakdown of the application charges. In fact, leading one to question the accuracy of the estimate, the guidance stated that USCIS was still developing the application forms and had not yet submitted them to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Read more at FAIR’s President Obama’s Record of Dismantling Immigration Enforcement.