On June 15, 2012, President Barrack Obama granted temporary retrieve to young undocumented immigrants by granting them deferred action. As of November 15, 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received approximately 298,834 applicants. But since the option given is only temporary in nature, approximately one million undocumented young immigrants are still looking forward to the passage of the DREAM ACT.
Recently, on November 27, 2012, Republican Senators John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Kyl introduced the ACHIEVE Act which is their party’s version of the DREAM Act. The ACHIEVE Act which stands for Assisting Children’s Helping them Improve their Educational Values for Employment Act provides a distinct way of obtaining legal status for undocumented young adults. How different is this new bill from the DREAM Act?
The DREAM Act: Pathway to Citizenship
In December 2010, after the House passed the DREAM Act, the Senate failed to pass this bill. When the Congress opened session in 2011, the DREAM Act was re-introduced with the hope that it will finally be passed into legislation before the 112th U.S. Congress closes. This bill would have helped tens of thousands of undocumented young adults who have spent their childhood in the United States to obtain legal immigrant status if the following criteria were met: (1) must have come to the United Sates before they turned 16, (2) be under the age of 35; (3) have lived in the United Stats for at least five years; (4) graduated from high school or passed an equivalency examination; (5) have good moral character and (6) attended college or enlist in the military for two years.
In a few weeks, the 112th Congress will close session and no action on the DREAM Act is in sight. Interestingly, the Republicans introduced the ACHIEVE Act, a last minute alternative to the DREAM Act, which according to the sponsors, has been the subject of ‘behind the scenes ‘discussion among Republican lawmakers for quite sometime.
ACHIEVE Act: Temporary W Visas
The ACHIEVE Act clearly does not provide a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented youth. In essence, this bill would give temporary status to young adults less than 28 years old who entered the country before the age of 14 in order that they could finish college or enter the military service. New “W” nonimmigrant visas are being introduced in this Achieve Act. As a first step, it provides a W1 visa, which would be granted for six years to qualified undocumented youth. This W1 visa would allow young adult to attend college, serve in the military and work legally.
When the W1 visa expires in 6 years, the young adult will be granted a 4-year W2 conditional nonimmigrant visa. It will be granted only if there is proof of attainment of a bachelor’s degree, an associate degree with 2 and half years of work or 4 years of military service.
The 4-year W2 visa is still a conditional non-resident visa and after it expires in 4 years, the young adult may apply for a third nonimmigrant W3 visa. This W3 visa will have a 5-year validity period with a 4 year renewal option until the holder of this visa finds his/her own way of applying for the immigrant visa through other means either through employment based petition or family based petition. If the W visa holders will not have their own petitions, they will forever be W visa holders as long as they meet the eligibility requirements to maintain such visa.
Comparatively, the DREAM Act sets the path to citizenship in 6 years. If a young undocumented immigrant qualifies for the DREAM Act, it shall provide for a six years of conditional residence which will allow them to study, work and stay legally in the United States. The conditional residence is removed after 6 years if the individual graduates from a 2-year vocational college, completes 2 years toward higher education degree or serves in the military for 2 years. Thereafter, s/he is allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship.
Lame Duck Session
The motives of the sponsors in introducing the ACHIEVE Act during the lame duck session of the Congress is not to pass this bill considering that the Congress is currently focused on critical fiscal issues at the moment. In fact, the sponsoring Senators admitted that they are not optimistic about this ACHIEVE Act. In his public statement, Senator Kyl said that they introduced this bill to “get this ball rolling” before the Senate session ends. Since the proponents of this ACHIEVE Act, Senator Kyl and Senator Hutchinson are retiring this year, it is their hope that their version of the DREAM Act could be re-introduced in the next Congress, even in their absence.
Young Filipino Undocumented Immigrants
The statistics released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicate that the Philippines as one of the top 10 countries whose nationals applied for the deferred action. Mexico is number one on the list while the Philippines is listed as number 10. There is no exact figure on how many more DREAMers are of Filipino descent. But majority of those we have assisted, so far, are aspiring to obtain permanent solutions to their immigrant status rather than the temporary alternative being proposed. They would rather be DREAMers than ACHIEVErs.
(Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 887 7177 or 721 1963 or visit her website at tancinco.weareph.com/old)
