This Week in Immigration Reform — Week Ending April 3

Week Ending April 3

This week in immigration reform: opportunities for learning more about administrative relief and immigrant integration; update on the Texas lawsuit challenging executive action; NCLR continues our blog series on deferred action recipients; and engage your elected officials while they are in district.

Mark your calendars: In anticipation of implementation of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, the Immigration Advocates Network and the Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation (CIRI) are hosting a trio of webinars on preparing applicants for DACA and DAPA. Registration is now open for the first webinar in this series, titled “Bringing Clients into Eligibility for Administrative Relief: Meeting the Education Requirement for DACA and the Parent/Child Relationship Requirement for DAPA.”

It will take place on Friday, April 17, 2015 at 2:00 pm (Eastern). This webinar will address:

– Strategies for meeting the DACA education requirements;
– Review of INA definition of child and implications for DAPA; and
– Overview of ways to establish paternity.

To register, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5778440844343639041. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email. If you have questions, email [email protected].

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is holding a teleconference on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern) to discuss the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the fiscal year 2015 Citizenship and Integration Grant Program. USCIS posted the grant funding opportunity announcement on April 1, 2015, and all applications are due by May 15.

During this teleconference, USCIS officials will provide an overview of the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program and answer your questions about the application requirements and process. To register, visit the registration page to confirm your participation.

The Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, a competitive grant opportunity for organizations that prepare permanent residents for naturalization and promote civic integration through increased knowledge of English, U.S. history and civics. The program will provide up to $10 million in grants for citizenship preparation programs in communities across the country. Read more in a news release.

Update on the Texas lawsuit: This Monday the federal government filed a brief urging the federal appeals court to reverse the hold on President Obama’s executive actions. An Associated Press article notes: “Justice Department lawyers say in the new court filing that the federal government has unique authority to enforce the nation’s immigration laws and to use its limited resources to exercise discretion during the deportation process, including by deferring removal of certain groups of immigrants, such as those who do not pose a public safety threat.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has joined with Texas to oppose administrative relief, even though 53% of New Jerseyans support the president’s policies according to Central Jersey. Christie, along with the governors of Louisiana and South Dakota filed a brief Monday supporting the hold on administrative relief.

In the lawsuit, Texas and its supporters claim the president’s actions will cause harm to their states. However, new analysis by the Center for American Progress (CAP) shows delaying implementation is costing the country economically by preventing nearly 5 million individuals from working legally. “As DACA and DAPA recipients earn higher wages—an estimated total of $103 billion more over the next decade—the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, will increase cumulatively by $230 billion over the next 10 years. And it is not just beneficiaries of deferred action who will see wage gains: A booming economy will increase the incomes of all Americans by an estimated $124 billion. The growth in economic activity will also create an average of 28,814 jobs per year over the next 10 years for all Americans,” according to CAP.

NCLR features DACA recipient Ana Angeles: This week’s installment of our ‘Living the American DREAM’ blog series features a 30 year-old DACA recipient from Orange County, California. Ana Angeles has lived in the U.S. since she was 11 when her parents left Mexico in search of a better life for their family. Ana went on to graduate with a degree in business, but because of her status, she was unable to find meaningful work. That changed with the announcement of DACA. With DACA, Ana was able to find a job at an education company as a program manager and she manages to find time to help family members and friends navigate the DACA process.

Members of Congress at Home for Two Weeks: Congress has been on spring break for the week and will continue working in district next week. Now is a great opportunity to weigh-in with elected officials while they are back in their districts. Organizations can contact Janet Hernandez at [email protected] if they want more information about doing an in district visit, writing a letter to the editor on the need for administrative relief, and contributing to the ‘Living the American DREAM’ blog with a story.