Courtesy of New York State Youth Leadership Council
Obama’s victory in the 2012 presidential election was met with a mixture of relief, happiness and doubt. The national debates seemed to cover a variety of issues, aside from one of the most prominent: immigration. The initial optimism of both legal and illegal citizens surrounding Obama’s ability to deal with the controversial topic of immigration, quickly faded when he ended up deporting more undocumented immigrants than Bush had in his previous term.
As it goes with each new presidential term, Obama has assured the United States that he will fulfill a new set of promises. Obama recently announced an executive action that will enable hundreds of illegal immigrants who came into the United States as children to stay and work in the country without fear of deportation. Supposedly the policy change could possibly benefit more than 800,000 youth. Although the policy does not grant permanent residence, it does allow immigrant youth to live a normal life, working legally and owning a driver’s license and other necessary legal documents for two years. This policy change has also established that the Department of Homeland Security can no longer deport illegal immigrants who live in the United States and are under the age of 16, are high school graduates or military veterans. Immigrant youth have been advocating for measures such as these for over a year. Yet, not everyone was elated at the new change. Republicans were incensed with Obama’s disregard of Congress’s authority. Obama’s decision holds high potential for considerable payoff and it signifies a groundbreaking and hopeful change for the United States.
Yet, is it perhaps, too good to be true? Many immigrant youth are feverishly applying for this new program, but find that it’s more difficult than they believed. Illegal immigrants have been struggling to collect evidence to qualify, because it is difficult to document an undocumented life.
Immigration Talk 
Yes, I agree! What a great article. I too wrote a post on undocumented immigrantsand I feel that immigration is a difficult issue concerning this country but the government should at least help undocumented students!
Reblogged this on robertsjohnson and commented:
Going to a public school or receiving a GED is detrimental in our day and age. I’m glad the administration came together to stop the deportation of young immigrants who are going to school or trying to receive a degree in the U.S. Having immigrants coming to our country and using our resources in education should not be kicked out. Since there’s a law stating public education has to open its doors for everyone it would be silly to deport individuals after they complete school. When getting rid of young educated workers this leads to competition from other nations, by giving their foreign businesses employees with an American education. Many new starting businesses are coming from entrepreneurial immigrants coming to America and they shouldn’t be turned away in our economies fragile state. However this policy needs to be looked over by Congress to make sure it is efficient and effective. One thing that is a major opposition in this policy is that it’s hard for immigrants to achieve documentation, especially if the applicant is a youth without any kind of personal paper work.
I think the next four years under Obama’s presidency will say a lot about the direction the United States is going with it foreign policy including it’s treatment of immigrants. I personally think that Obama will stay true to his word now that he does not have to worry about re-election but I understand how nerve racking it could be t these undocumented students who are taking a risk identifying themselves with out assurance that they will receive protection.