President Obama’s Immigration Actions

by emilianopadron

On Thursday, President Obama delivered his speech on Immigration. He announced the following actions to be eligible to stay in the country.
– Living in the United States for more than five years
– Have children who are American citizens or legal residents
– If you register, pass a criminal background check
– Willing to pay a fair share of taxes
With those requirements, undocumented immigrants can apply to stay in the country temporarily. These actions don’t apply to those who come to the country recently, who might come to the United States illegally in the future. It doesn’t grant citizenship, or the right to stay here permanently or offer the same benefits that citizens receive – only Congress can do that.

President Obama has received criticism from the right saying that he’s granting amnesty. This is not amnesty because only 5 million undocumented immigrants are eligible to apply for these actions. They aren’t receiving citizenship, they have to pay a fine, pay taxes and go back to the line. If President Obama would’ve grant amnesty, he would’ve grant legal residency to the 11 million undocumented immigrants without paying a fine and not going back to the line. But, since not everybody is eligible for these actions, this isn’t amnesty.