In a surprise move the Obama Administration announced that it will review the deportation cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants, allowing some to stay in the United States and apply for work permits. The goal is to identify "low-priority cases" to free-up over burdened immigration courts. While these cases can be reopened at any time, this seems unlikely.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nevada) outlining the plan, Homeland Security Advisor Janet Nappolitano said that an interagency working group would do a case-by-case review of all pending deportation cases. It appears that low-priority deportation cases that are likely to be halted include children brought to the U.S. by their parents, undocumented spouses of U.S. military personnel and immigrants that have no criminal record. Is this a step to comprehensive immigration reform or an amnesty program? That seems unlikely with a Republican-controlled House. Efforts to pass the Dream Act last year, which would allow certain young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay, and which appeared to have a lot of support, failed at the end of 2010.
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