By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Illegal immigrants are preparing to ask President Obama to pardon some 750,000 Dreamers, saying such a move is their last, best hope to stave off what they fear will be a wave of deportations once Donald Trump takes the Oval Office.
Community leaders have planned a rally in New York on Wednesday to make the request.
As of September, more than
740,000 illegal immigrants had been approved for Mr. Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a minor amnesty that grants young adult illegal immigrants a two-year stay of deportation and issues them work permits, entitling them to driver’s licenses and some taxpayer benefits.
Mr. Trump has signaled that
he would cancel that order, leaving Dreamers out of status when their work permits expire. That puts Mr. Obama in a bind because he has expressed an interest in helping illegal immigrants but also has acknowledged limits on power.
Rosemary Jenks, a government relations manager at NumbersUSA, which lobbies for stricter immigration enforcement, said an Obama pardon
could erase from the Dreamers’ records the illegal ways they entered the country. But the president couldn’t put illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship through a pardon.
“
He can’t grant them legal status,†she said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/15/illegals-demand-obama-issue-mass-pardons-last-ditc/
