The White House yesterday dismissed suggestions that it was possible to work out what President Obama’s plans for immigration reform via executive action are based on the Department of Homeland’s procurement request for additional green cards, with press secretary Josh Earnest dismissing the speculation as “crazy”.
Earnest cautioned the press against making wild assumptions just because of the “procurement of green paper”. Breitbart News unveiled the proposal earlier this week, which asks contractors to get ready for the prospect of producing up to 34 million work permits and green cards over the course of the next five years ‒ a number far in excess of the current level. A maximum amount of 480,000 green cards are issued by the United States every year, with the first half of 2014 seeing 862,000 work permits processed.
Many conservatives have been jumping to the conclusion that the order has been given to pave the way for President Obama to issue a sweeping executive order that could result in millions of new or undocumented immigrants being given legal status; however, the White House yesterday dismissed such fears as unfounded speculation.
Earnest says that the president has not yet reached a final decision and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Chris Bently likewise played down the purchase order’s significance. “Solicitations of this nature are frequent practice for all USCIS contacts and allow the agency to be prepared for fluctuations in the number of immigration applications received, which can arise for any number of reasons,” he claims.
