<\/p>\n

President Obama recently announced he would alter the Department of Homeland Security policy and allow some undocumented immigrants who came into the country when they were children, the option to apply for two-year permits, protecting them from being deported.<\/p>\n

Obama proposes that illegal immigrants would be eligible for the permits provided the following:<\/p>\n

\n
• They be under the age of 30 years of age<\/li>\n
• They came to America illegally under the age of 16<\/li>\n
• They have continuously resided in the US a minimum of five years<\/li>\n
• They have never committed criminal acts, and<\/li>\n
• They hold a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent, or were previously serving or are currently serving in the military.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  The President claims this is not a permanent solution, but rather a temporary fix until congress can find a long term fix to the ongoing problem, and does not provide a \u201cpath to legal citizenship.\u201d Even so, there remain some rather large issues; the permits, though for a two-year period, can be renewed indefinitely, and perhaps a bigger issue is the question of whether President Obama even has the authority to pass the order on his own.<\/p>\n

  Employees in California would clearly be affected by the order as the state has a large immigrant workforce, both legal and otherwise. So what does the country think about the possibility? A whopping 73% feel the President should be working with congress rather than trying to grab power and make executive orders on his own, regardless of whether they like the policy. But a significant majority of 63% of people polled don\u2019t want the permits granted at all.<\/p>\n

  For reasons such as the loss of jobs for legal residents, to the statement that the decree is downright unconstitutional, the debate rages on and so far there is no solution from either side.<\/p>\n

  The debate brings with it many issues for California workers, and we have passed new laws this year that provide additional protection for immigrant employees no matter what happens in Washington.<\/p>\n

  If you have experienced discrimination as an immigrant, whether you are legal or not, UELG may be able to help.<\/p>\n

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  Photo Credit: Shutterstock\/ goodluz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  President Obama recently announced he would alter the Department of Homeland Security policy and allow some undocumented immigrants who came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[928,43,934],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california-labor-law","category-discrimination","category-job-hunt"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n