Around 400,000 migrants from the state of Jalisco will benefit from President Barack Obama’s sweeping changes to the U.S. immigration system via executive action.
The figure represents almost nine percent of the total number of Mexicans – approximately 3.5 million – who will be eligible to apply for legal status to live in the United States. Unauthorized immigrants from Mexico account for two-thirds of those who will receive deportation relief under Obama’s initiative, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.
Obama’s action will also make the immigration process faster and easier for high-skilled immigrants and expand work authorization for those in line for green card. This could result in 150,000 to 200,000 new workers moving to the United States.
In contrast to the anger of conservatives in the United States, politicians in Mexico and Latin America are delighted at Obama’s bold move.
In a statement, the Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry said the measure will allow “significant numbers of Mexicans to increase their opportunities as well as help them live with greater dignity and certainty.”
In a comment perhaps targeted at critics of the measures, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said, “This is an act of justice which recognizes the great contribution of millions of Mexicans to the development of our neighbor.”
Obama went on prime time television to announce his plans to offer temporary legal status to approximately five million undocumented immigrants, among other actions.
The most substantial change grants protection from deportation to about 4.3 million unauthorized immigrants, in addition to those given relief via the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative signed by Obama in 2012.
Immigrants will be eligible to apply for three years of relief from deportation – as well as work permits – if they arrived in the United States under the age of 16 and before 2010; or if they arrived before 2010 and have at least one child who is a U.S. citizen or legal resident. Of these, about 700,000 have adult children and the remaining 2.8 million have children younger than 18.
This means that parents of a U.S. citizen can now go about their lives free from the constant fear of deportation, as long as they pass a criminal background check.
The new action would benefit those born in Mexico more than any other country of origin group. According to the Pew Research analysis, 44 percent of all unauthorized immigrants from Mexico could apply for deportation protection under the new programs, compared with 24 percent of those from other parts of the world.
Even so, Central American presidents have welcomed the measures wholeheartedly. Honduran President Juan Hernandez said Obama’s action is “a step in the right direction” and “sends a powerful message of solidarity with Latin America.”
Obama was determined to press forward with immigration reform, even after the Democrats’ stinging defeat in the midterms, saying he would “act in the absence of action by Congress.”
Talking on ABC News this week, the president said he is still willing “to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution. And the day I sign that bill into law, the actions I take will no longer be necessary.”
Last week, Obama traveled to a predominantly Hispanic school in Las Vegas to launch what is expected to be an extended effort to sell his plan to the public.
“When members of Congress question my authority to make our immigration system work better, I have a simple answer – pass a bill,” he said at the meeting.
Congressional Republicans are united in their anger at what they view as Obama’s “empirical” actions, but do not as yet seem to have united behind a plan to counteract them.
While some far-right representatives suggest blocking all of Obama’s congressional nominations, shutting down the government or even impeachment (for violating the Constitution), party leaders have been more cautious, with Senator Lindsey Graham saying the public “backlash” against the measures could in itself prove to be Obama’s undoing.
But as Obama prepared to traverse the nation this week, polls indicated that the Republicans may not have the kind of public support they had hoped for.
According to a CNN/ORC poll out Wednesday, only 26 percent of Americans think Obama’s plan for those immigrants goes too far, while 50 percent called it about right and 22 percent said it doesn’t go far enough. However, when asked for their stance on Obama using an executive order to make those changes, 41 percent said they favor the move, while 56 percent said they oppose it.
Another poll by Hart Research on behalf of Americans United For Change shows that executive action receives support from 91 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of political independents, and is opposed by 51 percent of Republicans.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey conducted earlier this month showed public disapproval of executive action on immigration by a margin of 48 to 38 percent. The same poll, however, shows that 57 percent of Americans favor a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Although a time line for applications is to be confirmed, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have been instructed by Obama to “immediately begin identifying persons in their custody” who meet the criteria, as well as consider the new criteria for “all individuals encountered.”
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry promised to “closely follow the implementation of these measures in order to provide updated information to the Mexican community.”