Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte is warning that “startling new changes” to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative could put hundreds of thousands of unlawful immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, contrary to a promise made by President Obama that it would not.
Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, expressed his concerns over the new pathway to citizenship in a letter sent Friday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
Goodlatte penned the letter after his staff had a conference call with U.S. Customs and Immigration (USCIS) on Thursday.
At issue is USCIS’s recent move to allow DACA recipients to simultaneously apply for what is called advance parole.
“Advance parole allows unlawful immigrants to re-enter the United States after traveling abroad,” Goodlatte explained in the letter. “Once DACA recipients are granted advance parole and meet other criteria, they may be eligible to adjust their immigration status and be placed on a pathway to citizenship.”
Goodlatte noted 88 percent of the 4,566 DACA recipients who applied for advance parole were granted the status in the first two years of DACA.
DACA recipients who apply for advance parole through USCIS become eligible for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, Goodlatte wrote.
LPRs are then able to apply for citizenship.
As Goodlatte notes, when President Obama announced the creation of DACA — which granted amnesty to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — on June 15, 2012, he stated “Now, let’s be clear — this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship.”
“Your Department’s recent changes to this deferred action program seem to be a sneaky attempt to place potentially hundreds of thousands of unlawful immigrants on a path to citizenship,” Goodlatte wrote.
Goodlatte noted that this mechanism is already well-known among pro-immigration groups.
“A simple search of the Internet reveals that immigration reform advocacy groups and immigration benefits law practices are fully aware of the path to citizenship that is afforded to DACA recipients through advance parole,” Goodlatte wrote.
In his letter, Goodlatte encouraged Johnson to direct USCIS to stop accepting advance parole applications for DACA recipients.
“When the President of the United States tells the American people that DACA is ‘not a path to citizenship,’ no agency should take action in direct conflict with that statement,” wrote Goodlatte. “To do so is misleading the American people.”