The White House has asked the Department of Defense to delay a plan that would allow some immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children to obtain a limited path to citizenship by serving in the military.
The decision to postpone the narrowly drawn proposal is part of the White House effort to put off any immigration-related executive actions until August in the hope that House Republicans act on legislation to overhaul the immigration system in the next two months.
White House officials have said they don’t want to hurt those chances by taking executive branch actions that would anger congressional Republicans. The Senate has already passed broad immigration legislation.
“The president is convinced there is a legislative opportunity, and that gives us the best opportunity to fix what’s broken in our immigration system,” White House spokesman Bobby Whithorne said Monday. “He wants to leave no stone unturned to make sure the House takes that opportunity, follows the Senate’s lead and takes action.”
The plan under consideration by the Pentagon would apply to immigrants who arrived illegally as children but already have received work permits and relief from deportation under a program President Barack Obama announced two years ago, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. More than 500,000 immigrants have benefited from the program.
The Pentagon proposal would permit military service by immigrants who don’t have legal status if they meet criteria under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program. The program allows military service by non-citizens who have language or medical skills. As a result, the proposal would likely only affect a small portion of the immigrants who have benefited from DACA.
Last month, House Republican leaders blocked any votes on immigration legislation that could have been attached to a broader defense policy bill, including one measure that would have offered citizenship to immigrants in the U.S. illegally who serve in the military. That proposal had been introduced by Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of California. It had 26 Democrat and 24 Republican co-sponsors. But it was staunchly opposed by a minority of Republicans.
The delay sought by the White House was first reported by The New York Times.
(AP)
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6 Responses
“what’s broken in our immigration system,” is that we don’t have the right protocol in place to prevent illegals from coming in nor do we give them sufficient incentive for them to leave once here. Which sub-standard intelligence is it that we should be pushing illegal immigration as opposed to legal immigration and that illegals should get a better chance and first chance priority to obtain citizenship before and beyond those who go through legal channels. Why, should all these people be penalized because they decided not to break the law?
All illegals here should be rounded up, tried for illegally breaking the law and following serving their sentence immediately deported to their country of origin from where they broke into our country illegally.
Amen to that Bogan and if you have any extra room why don’t you send Obama with them so that he can root for them over there by thier country of origin
If you’re an illegal who commits a crime, he’ll let you free. If you’re an illegal who serves in the Army, you can’t stay.
To prevent all illegal immigration and to round up all current illegal immigrants would require a police state the size of the former Soviet union, with tax increases of perhaps a hundred billion dollars a year, and hundreds of new jails. It would also destroy the economy.
The amazing thing is how many Jews want to “round up” people for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe these are just gentile bigots commenting here.
The truth is that under current law these illegal immigrants could return to their home countries and enlist in the US Armed Forces from there. Why force them to waste their money?
“If you’re an illegal who commits a crime, he’ll let you free.”
Actually that isn’t true at all. Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any President in history. And in the rare cases when being an illegal immigrant is actually a crime he has been prosecuting such cases aggressively. I sat on a federal grand jury that made indictments in over four dozen such cases in just a month.