Obama Adds One More Amnesty to the List

The Obama administration continues to broaden the list of immigration laws which they will not enforce, with the publication of a final rule expanding those eligible for the existing provisional waiver process. Illegal aliens who marry green-card holders or have parents in the U.S. can now escape the penalties for illegal presence in the U.S. as a result of this latest usurping of the legislative role by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

This new provisional waiver process amnesty is one of a long list of Obama amnesties, including: limiting workplace enforcement raids, exempting students who came to the U.S. as children from deportation proceedings, and not deporting any illegal alien who has not been convicted of a serious criminal offense.

Just days before this final rule was rolled out, Obama expanded the amnesty program which flies unlawful Central American Minors (CAM) to the U.S. from Central America. Now the program, never funded by Congress, will also pay to fly entire families and those claiming to be a caregiver of an unlawful immigrant minor to the U.S. to receive amnesty and eventually citizenship.

Prior to the latest rule change (which goes into effect on August 29, 2016), only immediate relatives of U.S. citizens could apply for provisional waivers prior to leaving the U.S. for immigrant visa processing. The new rule expedites present illegal aliens' ability to apply for green cards, to compete for jobs with U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, and removes the penalty for illegal presence.

Presently to receive the waiver, the illegal alien must show that if they leave the country the qualifying relative who resides in the U.S. would experience "extreme hardship." But the meaning of this term may be changing as well; USCIS has announced that new guidance is going to be given in the next few weeks on how the agency will determine "extreme hardship."

As typical, USCIS declares their intent is "family unity." But this rule, as with past administrative amnesties, has undermined U.S. law and the deterrent effect for future illegal aliens entering the country.