For young people who entered the U.S. illegally as children, U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop will host a forum on Sept. 14 about relief from deportation offered by the Obama administration.
President Obama announced the new policy, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, in June.
The forum will take place at 7 p.m. Friday in the community room at in Bridgehampton, featuring a presentation by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
To receive relief, undocumented immigrants must meet several criteria, including not presenting a risk to national security or public safety, according to Bishop's office. Those who qualify will be eligible to be authorized to work for a renewable period of two years.
"I voted to pass the DREAM Act in the House, and I support the president taking executive action to give young people who came to America as children a chance to legally contribute to our society," Bishop said shortly after Obama announced deferred action. "This is a positive development for fairness in our immigration policy."
Deferred action is expected to allow more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants to obtain work visas.
Bishop's office notes that those wishing to apply are not required to enlist an attorney.
Those with questions or wishing to RSVP may call Bishop's office at 631-289-6500.
By the way "doing it right" was much easier when our grandparents came here. It did not take them 14 years to become a citizen and, in those days, just like today, there were discriminated against and hated, legal or not.
The poll, conducted by Bloomberg News, shows that 64 percent of American voters support the executive decision, while 30 percent are against it. Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/majority-support-obamas-immigration-policy-but-critics-remain-skeptical-of-political-motivations-77113/#cRohx1OqOZb2LRmb.99
You have your opinion and I have mine. I never said it was easy for my great-grandparents, it was hard. They didn't speak English, they all spoke Italian...and here's the kicker...THEY ALL LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!! Every single one of them spoke to me in English when I was a child. Only when they were old and senile did they revert back to Italian or pissed, they argued in Italian so us kids wouldn't understand.
I am first generation and my family came here as immigrants as well and, yes, they did learn to speak English. And so are today's Hispanic immigrants. I used to volunteer teach ESL at a local church and I can tell you that my class was always packed with people who desperately wanted to speak English because they knew it was necessary to succeed. We also used to help them apply for taxpayer ID's because they knew the path to citizenship meant paying taxes. For most of them the dream of citizenship was an impossible one, so they contributed to a system from which they it was likely they would never benefit. When you work 60 hours a week, as many of these laborers do, it is very hard to find the time to learn to speak English. Again, they came here because there was a demand for their labor. Republicans and Democrats alike have ignored immigration reform because no one wants to cut off the supply of cheap labor, especially in areas like Southampton where the economy would collapse without undocumented workers. So, to accommodate these people who will soon make up a majority of our population, we have bi-lingual education, signs, gov't docs, etc. but that in no way means they are not learning to speak English. I have seen it first hand. The answer is not to vilify them, but to help them. I would recommend that concerned people volunteer as ESL teachers.
I too understand the grievances and outrage and any real immigration reform must address these issues. Like Mary Beth said, the times are changing and let's just hope our elected officials can get it right.
I have many friends who immigrated here as children. Their parents came here legally with them and made the way for them to become American citizens. Why should the illegals get to "cut the line" so to speak and automatically get to stay here...because it costs a lot of money to become legal? That's the price you pay to stay here in this country!