600,000 Southern Immigrants Could Get Legal Status

A legal aid group released an analysis on Thursday, which claims that up to 600,000 undocumented immigrants living in various states could have a pathway to gain legal residency in the US.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) has performed a statistical review of all immigrant screenings. Its findings show that about 15 percent of the four million undocumented immigrants currently believed to be living in seven US states in the south have grounds to file applications for legal status due to family ties, the fear of persecution in their home countries, or for other reasons. The percentage may be even higher with the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants spread throughout the US. This is according to Tom Wong, a political scientist at the San Diego University of California, who was commissioned to conduct the analysis by CLINIC.

In a telephone interview, Wong said the review findings show that immigrants should not be deported first and then questioned afterward, as the Trump administration focuses on stricter immigration enforcement in the US. The analysis appears to support the argument by many immigrant rights groups that some undocumented immigrants would be allowed to remain in the country if they had access to legal help.

Danielle Bennett, the spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that deportations can be delayed by the agency if an application for legal residency, or an appeal, has been lodged by an immigrant and thorough reviews are carried out before deportations.