Young adults without legal status may sign-up for work permits

Effective August 15, 2012, Bay Area young people (ages 16-31) without legal status are eligible for legal work permits. Many of these young people immigrated here as small children with parents or relatives who are, or were, undocumented.  The legal work status permits are a temporary two (2) year band-aid. Meantime, hopefully US Congress will enact humane immigration reform.   

Register, then we  know who you are

Some of these young people say they are uneasy about registering for a work permit, because the government will know where to find them. Of course, most  were students in our  public school system. What a way to live! 

Silicon Valley Mercury News/Matt O'Brien, 8/6/12.  "65,000 Bay Area immigrants could benefit from deportation policy, study states."  "As the Obama administration readies for a rush of applications from young illegal immigrants seeking work permits, a new study predicts one of the largest contingents will come from the Bay Area, perhaps more than from all of Arizona. And while the majority of the applicants here and across the country were born in Mexico, the Bay Area also has a large number of Asian immigrant youths who are likely to benefit from the new policy.

More than 46,000 Bay Area immigrants who are younger than 31 and were brought to the country illegally when they were children could immediately qualify for two-year, renewable work permits and protection from being deported. Another 19,000 here are children younger than 15 who could benefit when they grow older, according to the estimates by the Immigration Policy Center, an advocacy and research group based in Washington, D.C. .... California as a whole has about 30 percent of all potential beneficiaries. Nationwide, the policy center joins other researchers in saying nearly 1 million could immediately qualify when the policy takes effect Aug. 15, but the center is the first to make regional estimates.

.... "These are people who basically have lived here all their lives who are American but they don't have their papers," she said. The relief directive won't grant legal residency or citizenship but will permit the youths to work legally and will protect them from being deported."   Read Article.

Reference -  Migration Information Institute/Carola Balbuena and Jeanne Batalova/US in focus. "...roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants residing across the nationAs of January 2010... an estimated 12.6 million green card holders resided in the United States, about 8.1 million of whom were eligible to naturalize as citizens."

Reference -  Immigration laws. .."...over 50% of the illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico, with over 20% of all illegal immigrants hailing from other Latin American countries. ....Asian countries representing for the third largest figure, being only 13% of illegal immigrant population.  ....  the majority of the population of illegal immigrants is concentrated in the state of California. ....nearly three million illegal immigrants reside in California.
Referemce -  Homeland Security/Latest legal and illegal immigration statistics, 11/2/11

Related factoid article - My Daily Complaint, 7/11/12. 48% of New York City small service businesses are immigrant owned, (statistics from the fiscal policy institute).

Posted by Kathy Meeh