June 12, 2017
By Alex Pfeiffer
A loophole in immigration law could allow thousands of illegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship, according to government data obtained by The Daily Caller.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which is former President Barack Obama’s amnesty for illegal immigrants who arrived as minors, does not confer legal status upon illegal immigrants. Instead, it is a form of prosecutorial discretion that protects beneficiaries from deportation.
A 2012 administration court decision, however, allows DACA recipients to leave the country and return through a process called advance parole, and receive lawful permanent status (a green card) if they are a direct relative of an American citizen. A lawful permanent resident may become a citizen after five years.
The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) obtained figures from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that show that from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2016 an estimated 31,781 DACA beneficiaries were approved for advance parole. USCIS did not give the full figures for fiscal year 2016, and the amount for that year had to extrapolated from the October 2015 figure. … Read the full story by Alex Pfeiffer.
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