Hillary Clinton recently gave a major speech on immigration, outlining her plans on the issue. If she is elected as the President of the U.S., she is more likely to make the immigration process easier for legal and undocumented immigrants.
Expansion of President Obama’s DACA and DAPA
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), are President Obama’s deportation relief programs, meant for the undocumented youth and undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders, respectively.
DACA was implemented in 2012 and is helping the undocumented youth to get a two year reprieve from deportation. Deferred action status is also renewable. President Obama announced his plans to expand DACA and implement DAPA in 2014. However, an appeals court placed a temporary ban on the President’s actions, claiming that his actions are unconstitutional. The Obama administration is now asking the Supreme Court to lift the temporary injunction placed on the executive actions.
Hillary Clinton says that she will expand President Obama’s actions on immigration, if she is elected as the President. She said that the futures of a lot of families are hanging in balance and that the country cannot wait for the U.S. Congress to act on the issue.
Put an end to private immigration-detention centers
Clinton does not want to outsource detention centers to private companies. She says that it is the responsibility of the government to run detention centers. For-profit corporations run around 62 percent of all beds at immigration detention centers. According to immigrant advocates, these corporations treat detainees like criminals and prevent them from seeking legal representation.
End family immigration detention
Clinton is against family immigration detention centers. She says that there are a lot of other alternatives like supervised release, that can be used. At present, there is only one family detention center run by the government. Most of the family detention enters were closed by President Obama. After a lot of immigrant minors from Central America were apprehended, three facilities were opened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in New Mexico and Texas.
Path to legalization for undocumented immigrants
The hard working undocumented immigrants who love the country and who contribute to it, will be allowed to get into a path to legalization and U.S. citizenship, says Clinton. She is in favor of the 2013 Senate Immigration Reform bill that passed the Senate but not the House. That bill would have granted a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. But most Republicans are against the path to citizenship and the Senate bill.
Simplifying the legal immigration process
Clinton wants to make it easier for the green card holders to apply for U.S. citizenship. For many, the cost of applying for citizenship is a major barrier. Clinton says that she will make citizenship affordable by creating more fee waivers. She will make sure that green card holders eligible for citizenship get access to English classes by increasing outreach programs. She says that this will help more green card holders apply for naturalization.