More than 3,000 young illegal immigrants are applying every day for deferred deportation under the Obama administration’s new immigration policy, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Wednesday.
So far, about 200,000 young people who are in the US illegally have applied to defer their deportation for at least two years and get a temporary work permit, Napolitano said, The Hill reports.
The Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications under the new rules two months ago. Napolitano said in June that immigrants 31 years old and younger who were brought to the country illegally before they were 16 could apply for a permit to stay in the US for a two-year, renewable period.
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Immigrants must have lived in the United States for five years to be eligible. They must attend school or have an equivalency diploma, graduated from high school, or been honorably discharged from the military.
They also must not be a felon or have been convicted of more than two misdemeanor crimes.
Applications takes at least four months to process, during which time the applicant will not be deported from the country, Napolitano said.
“I suspect that we may see a bulge of applications after the New Year when there’s either this administration or a new administration and when the policies are going to be become more clear,” she said, according to The Hill.
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