Obama issues executive order, Republicans attempt to block

As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives circulate legislation on Capitol Hill in response to U.S. President Barack Obama’s executive order concerning immigration, Boston politicians and residents are considering potential implications of the new policies.

In a televised Nov. 20 statement, Obama announced an executive order stating that new immigration policies must be implemented. The order allows illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship without fear of deportation if they have lived in the United States for over five years, have children who are American citizens, pass a criminal background check and are willing to pay taxes.

The new policies are designed to protect immigrant families while focusing on removing threats to the public’s safety, according to a fact sheet posted on the whitehouse.gov website.

“Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mother who’s working hard to provide for her kids,” Obama said in the speech. “We’ll prioritize, just like law enforcement does every day.”

Under Obama’s executive order, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  (DACA) Program, a program launched in June 2012 that defers the removal of individuals, will expand its coverage to any undocumented immigrants who entered the country before the age of 16, including those born prior to June 15, 1981, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. The entry date for coverage has also been adjusted from June 15, 2007 to Jan. 1, 2010.

During the first two years of DACA, 60 percent of eligible immigrants came forward, and 4.9 million undocumented immigrants may now be eligible for these DACA initiatives, the website states.

The naturalization process will also be facilitated by allowing payment by credit card for naturalization fees.

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh  released a statement regarding the City of Boston’s efforts to amend immigration problems.

“We are changing the paradigm through full integration and empowering immigrants and everyone to help make our communities stronger,” Walsh said.

Walsh said his administration has taken a variety of steps toward immigration reform, including holding a Citizenship Day for nearly 200 immigrants to apply for citizenship, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Day to help students achieve their education goals and launching an Immigrant Integration and Empowerment Initiative.

The Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians  is working to disseminate Obama’s executive order to the residents of Boston, said Melina Schuler , spokeswoman for the City of Boston, in an email.

“The purpose of the MONB is to strengthen the ability of diverse cultural and linguistic communities to play an active role in the economic, civic, social and cultural life in the city of Boston,” she said. “MONB acts as a catalyst for providing opportunity, access and equality for immigrants and highlights the contributions and the essential role that immigrants have played and continue to play in making Boston the world class city that it is.”

Franklin Soults, communication director of the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy  Coalition, said the executive action is a great victory for the immigrant community because it will allow more people to come out of the shadows. However, he added, there are still many changes to be made.

The executive action cannot change the status of undocumented immigrants permanently, he said. It can only offer them relief from deportation.

“Congress needs to finally act. Now that both houses of Congress are being controlled by the Republican Party, perhaps they will decide that it’s time for them to be more than just a party of opposition and try to make some changes,” Soults said.

Lee Staples, a professor of public relations at Boston University, said while the policy change is a relief for immigrants, anxieties will still remain because the next president can decide to eliminate the order. The uncertainty could cause some immigrants to continue to fear deportation, even if they do come out of the shadows under Obama’s protection, he said.

“You’ve got a number of students who have been at the top of their class in some cases or near the top of their class who are not eligible for in-state tuition because their parents lack documentation,” Staples said. “In many cases, that literally is the difference between them going to college or not going to college so then what options do they have?”

A Southern Border and Approaches Campaign Strategy  will be implemented to focus on the Southern maritime and land borders and the West Coast, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s website. Top priority removal will be focused on criminals.

Undocumented immigrants who entered the country prior to Jan. 1, 2014 who do not have a criminal record and have never disobeyed a prior removal will not be priorities for removal. All the DHS’ s efforts are designed to improve the process in which undocumented immigrants, who have not been convicted of crimes, gain citizenship, the DHS website states.

Alexis Chestnov , a freshman in the College of Communication, said border control is helpful in improving the American economy and ensuring that our population remains in check.

“When immigrants come in, they add to the population. When immigrants come into the country without a plan to be productive, they damage America’s economy, and further enhance overpopulation,” she said. “Having stricter border security would help monitor who is coming into the states, why and how it would benefit the country.”

Arden Lassalle , a freshman in the College of Fine Arts, said allowing immigrants to gain citizenship would be beneficial overall to the U.S. economy and help immigrants earn equal rights.

“Allowing people who have been here and who have been contributing to our economy to have a place in our legal system is a good thing,” he said. “And if they’re not documented, they’re not paying taxes on certain things. And they also don’t get rights that people would get if they were citizens.”

Devin Gaffney,  26, of Porter Square, said the new immigration policies are economically logical.

“That’s economics,” he said. “It falls under the Coase theorem, which says that if you remove the dumb regulations stopping people from doing the types of transactions they want to do, things just run more smoothly. Also, it’s really messed up that they aren’t allowing people to move places where they want to live.”

Kaitlyn Schlyago , 21, of Allston, said immigration policies could help her coworkers have benefits that have previously not been afforded to them.

“Expanded immigration reform is probably beneficial with doing odd jobs, because I feel like Americans almost think that they have to have a better job,” she said. “Or with their welfare policies, they expect more, and they don’t take the really grimy jobs. I know most of the guys that work service and kitchen jobs here [at Sunset Cantina] are Mexican or Brazilian, so I feel like it could help them.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that 4.9 million individuals will now be eligible to apply for citizenship. However, the executive action does not include a path to citizenship. The article has been edited to reflect this change.