Obama Proposes New Immigration Rule To Help Immigrant Spouses Of Citizens
(AP) WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans a rule change to help reduce the time illegal immigrant spouses and children are separated from citizen relatives while they try to win legal status in the United States, a senior administration official said.
Currently, illegal immigrants must leave the country before they can ask the government to waive a three- to 10-year ban on legally coming back to the U.S. The length of the ban depends on how long they have lived in the U.S. without permission.
The official said Thursday the new rule would let children and spouses of citizens ask the government to decide on the waiver request before the illegal immigrant heads to his or her home country to apply for a visa. The illegal immigrants still must go home to finish the visa process to come back to the U.S., but getting the waiver ahead of time could reduce the time an illegal immigrant is out of the country.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposed policy change had not been made public.
http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-springfield-ma/obama-proposes-new-immigration-rule-to-help-immigrant-spouses-of-citizens
(Washington, DC) -- Today's announcement in the Federal Register regarding the processing of family immigration applications is a victory for Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) who has spent more than a year urging the Obama Administration to remove obstacles to legal immigration in the absence of any definitive action in the Congress. The announcement indicates that some spouses and children of U.S. citizens who qualify for a family visa could travel overseas to obtain it without facing a mandatory decade-long exile from their families. The Congressman first proposed this paperwork processing policy change a year ago, along with a series of other administrative changes, and toured the country to rally support for the Obama Administration to take action.
"I am happy and excited that the President is taking this step," Rep. Gutierrez said. "On the immigration administrative fixes I have been fighting for, the President spent the last year saying 'no I can't' and now he is saying 'yes we can' and the community will get the message. This is movement in a positive direction that will not fix broader issues of immigration, but for a certain number of families caught in a bureaucratic nightmare, this is the common sense solutions I have been urging."
"I am glad that the President is adopting some of the Gutierrez plan to keep families together and make sure that our laws are not unnecessary barriers to legal status and immigration," the Congressman said. "When this processing procedure is implemented, some of the families I have been talking to around the country will have an option available to them that gets them in the system and protected from deportation."
Today in the Federal Register, the Obama Administration announced its intention to change how it applies rules governing family immigration for citizens who request a visa for their spouses and children. Under current law, many immigrants who qualify for such visas face a tough choice: apply and face up to ten years in exile overseas, often separated from their families, or remain in the U.S. in legal limbo or in an illegal immigration status. By allowing some immediate family to file waivers in the U.S. before incurring the ten year exile, the Obama Administration is increasing the chances that immigrants will apply for and receive the immigration status for which they already qualify.
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http://www.facebook.com/notes/congressman-luis-v-gutierrez/obama-adopts-some-of-rep-gutierrez-recommendations-to-help-families-avoid-10-yea/10150524464310101
