Over 50,000 Illegal Aliens Received Amnesty, Work Permits under Obama's DACA Program
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) last week said that about 309,000 have applied for executive amnesty under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and that 53,273 applications have been approved. Application and approval rates have increased significantly since just one month ago when USCIS had taken in 180,000 applications and approved 4,591.
Applications are now coming in at a rate of 4,827 a day as compared to 3,000 per day one month ago. USCIS figures indicate that more than 273,000 illegal aliens are in the final stages of the approval process. The agency received and rejected 10,101 incomplete applications to date. Officials have not said how many applications were denied.
DACA allows illegal aliens who are 31 or younger apply for deferred action and a work permit if they can demonstrate that they were brought to the country before the age of 16, have been in the country for at least 5 continuous years, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, have not been convicted of felony crimes, and attend college or serve in the military. An estimated 1.8 million illegal aliens meet most of the criteria.
The Administration has been reluctant to release information in reference to DACA. It's unclear how the claims made by the illegal aliens through the application process are validated, which illegal aliens qualify for work permits and which ones don't, what criminal convictions can disqualify an applicant, what happens to illegal aliens who are denied deferred action, and more. All these questions can be found at the new web site DACAFacts.com.
For more information read here or read the USCIS release here. For more information on DACA, see DACAFacts.com.