He said, she said folks,

DHS denies rumors that executive action will be used to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants

Although a White House official told La Prensa Thursday the White House had not yet received the letter and could not comment, on Friday, Janet Napolitano’s DHS clarified the issue and said in a statement:

“DHS has the authority to grant a deferral of removal action based on the merits of cases while considering humanitarian circumstances and other factors in the interest of the Department's overall law enforcement mission. However, this discretionary authority is implemented on a case-by-case basis and DHS does not grant deferred action without a review of relevant facts. To be clear, DHS will not grant deferred action to the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population.”

Some are still concerned that the statement could allow executive action to be expanded and used for a subset of that population – for example, to cover those whose visas expired as opposed to those who entered illegally, according to Fox News.

Still, the parties on all sides of the issue agree on one thing: the immigration system in the United States is broken.

President Obama, in remarks about immigration reform on May 5, said, “So I want to say again, just in case anybody is confused. The way to fix our broken immigration system is through common sense, comprehensive immigration reform … of course, it’s going to be tough. That’s the truth. Anybody who tells you it’s going to be easy or that I can wave a magic wand and make it happen hasn’t been paying attention to how this town works. We need bipartisan support.”

The statement from DHS agrees, and concludes that “comprehensive legislation, coupled with a safe and secure border, provides the best solution to our nation's immigration challenges, and we believe the recently unveiled Senate proposal for comprehensive immigration reform is a step in the right direction.”


DHS denies rumors that executive action will be used to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants :: La Prensa :: San Antonio

I find her wording interesting though and do believe that they might contemplate the whole expired visa vs. illegal issue. Of course, that would only represent about 30% of those here illegally who were paroled into the country. That is to say, NO Mexicans (it is impossible to get a tourist visa there) and probably the portion of the illegal community that is more likely to integrate successfully into the country since in order to get a visa at all in most countries (unless you live in one that the US does not require you to have a visa to get here, which are mostly only European) you have to show independent wealth so most of these people are from the upper middle class in their countries of origin and their background is easier to track, as well as their movement within the US because they were legally paroled into the country at some point. As long as there are strict guidelines, I wouldn't be opposed to that.