NY providing funds to aid illegal Caribbean immigrants

The United States Wednesday began accepting applications from young illegal Caribbean and other immigrants for temporary reprieve from deportation and New York State officials say they are providing US$450,000 in grants to groups that can help assist those immigrants.

In June, President Barack Obama announced the initiative, which grants two-year deportation deferrals and work permits to illegal Caribbean and other immigrants brought here as children.
“It is critical that we get information out to our immigrant communities so that people will know who is eligible for deferred action and so that they can avoid being scammed,” said New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Silver said the grants would support clinics, workshops and legal services across the state, where an estimated 80,000 immigrants between the ages of 15 and 30 could currently benefit.
The Assembly Speaker said that the grants have also gone to the Legal Services NYC and to a new state task force run by the New York Immigration Coalition and the New York State Immigrant Action Fund.
Officials at the US Citizenship and immigration Services, the federal agency in charge of the initiative, said they anticipate a massive load of paperwork in the shortest amount of time for a new programme since 1986, when more than three million immigrants who were in the country illegally became legal residents under an amnesty programme.
Officials said eligible young illegal immigrants can obtain valid social security numbers, and apply for driver’s licenses, professional certificates and financial aid for college.
The Washington-based Migration Institute, a nonpartisan research group, said about 1.2 million immigrants are eligible to apply now for the programme.
It said another 500,000 children will be able to apply when they reach the minimum eligibility age of 15 in coming years.
US officials said to be eligible for the reprieve, illegal immigrants must be in the country and under the age of 31 on June 15.
They must also have come to the US before they were 16 years and resided here continuously for at least five years.
In addition, officials said the illegal immigrants must be in school, or have graduated from high school or honourably discharged from the US Armed Forces.
Officials said immigrants convicted of a felony, a serious misdemeanour (including a sexual abuse or drug violation), or three less serious misdemeanours will be rejected.
Anyone deemed to pose a threat to US national security will also not be granted the reprieve, they said.
Officials said immigrants will not be allowed to appeal if their application is rejected, but they may re-apply and pay the US$465 fee again. (CMC)