President Barack Obama said Thursday he would take executive action to begin to fix what he described as a broken immigration system.
The president’s plan would allow more than 4 million undocumented immigrants who have been in the country more than five years and who have children born in the U.S. to stay temporarily and work without fear of deportation if they pass a background check and pay taxes.
The executive action, which the president was scheduled to sign Friday, could have a significant impact on the restaurant industry, the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer, estimated to include roughly 1.4 million undocumented immigrants among about 13 million workers overall, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The goal is to focus deportation efforts on “felons, not families; criminals, not children; gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids,” Obama said in an address to the nation Thursday evening.
As a result, hardworking immigrants and their families can “come out of the shadows and get right with the law,” he said.
The executive order would also streamline legal immigration by expanding work authorization for highly skilled workers who are in line for a green card.
The president said the government would continue to crack down on illegal immigration along the nation’s borders.
Though details on how the executive order might play out remain unclear, immigration attorney Shanon Stevenson, a partner at the law firm of Fisher & Phillips LLP in Atlanta, said the plan as described could benefit foodservice employers who have been targeted in recent years by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE.
“Certainly it would expand the pool of workers available to the restaurant industry, though not immediately. We think it would more likely be within six to nine months,” Stevenson said.
Applications could be accepted within the next 180 days, she said. Once authorized, that temporary work status would last three years, unless legislation canceling those orders is passed.
Under the president’s plan, employers would still be required to verify workers by completing I-9 forms and making sure documents appear reasonable.
If an employer has reason to believe a worker is undocumented, they would still be required to terminate that employee, she said.
However, Obama’s plan, could allow employers to hire back good workers that had been terminated in the past because of lack of documentation, Stevenson said.
But it could also put some current workers at risk if they come to an employer asking for help in qualifying for temporary status under the executive order — essentially admitting they are not documented.
“Unfortunately, that employer would have to terminate them until they got the authorization,” she said.
Both the National Restaurant Association and the National Council of Chain Restaurants, or NCCR, reacted negatively to Obama’s announced plan.
In a statement, Dawn Sweeney, president and chief executive of the NRA, expressed concern that the executive action would negatively impact Congress’ effort “to accomplish real and lasting reform.”
The NRA has long pushed for immigration reform at the federal level, she noted.
“Immigration reform is a highly charged issue that requires deliberate and constructive bipartisan dialogue,” Sweeney said. “We have worked vigorously with both parties to move legislation forward to the benefit of our membership and our workforce. We hope that the debate over process will not derail progress on commonsense immigration reform measures in the next Congress.”
NCCR said Obama’s plan is “seen by many as divisive and unhelpful.
“In spite of the executive action announced today, we hope that the president and Congress can work together to find a workable and lasting legislative solution to our nation’s immigration challenges,” the NCCR said in a statement.
Not without a fight
(Continued from page 1)
Republicans indicated Friday that the order will not go down without a fight.
House Speaker John Boehner reportedly said that Obama was “damaging the presidency” by using his executive authority, and that the House would act to counter the president, though he did not say how.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that “Congress will act” if the executive order is issued.
The president’s order would “ignore the law” and “impose new unfairness on law-abiding immigrants — all without solving the problem,” McConnell said.
In his speech, Obama admitted that the executive order would only go so far, saying that Congress had to finish the job by enacting legislation.
House Republicans failed to vote on a bipartisan bill that would have created a path to citizenship passed by the Senate last year, he said.
Immigration reform advocates praised Obama’s plan as a historic step in the right direction, though they agreed that a long-term solution is the goal — one that would resonate during the 2016 elections.
Mi Familia Vota, a nonprofit organization that promotes economic and social justice, said in a statement that immigration should not be a political game.
“The lives of real people are at stake — Americans like my own sister and brother-in-law who have lived in the United States for 27 years, have three grown children, pay taxes and have a small business,” said Ben Monterroso, Mi Familia Vota’s executive director. “The president has stood for Latino and immigrant communities, and we will stand with him against unwarranted attacks he may receive.”
Immigration remains a top issue for Latino voters, he warned. “Politicians who ignore us will be ignored by us at election time.”
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout
