Leaked Memos detail plan that would Circumvent Injunction against Administrative Amnesty
DHS Considering Granting Work Permits to Illegal and Unqualified Immigrants
WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee members are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to explain internal documents revealing plans to grant work permits to foreign workers in the country - potentially including illegal immigrants - who have been sponsored for a Green Card by their employer. Incredibly, the memos expressly state that a benefit of the new executive action would be to "authorize the presence of certain individuals who are not here lawfully and address the needs of some of the intended deferred action population," indicating that the proposal is calculated to evade a federal court injunction on such action.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and his colleagues on the committee are calling on the department to explain the origin and status of the internal memos. They are also requesting that the department explain its reasoning for ignoring legal requirements governing work-related immigration petitions.
In February, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an injunction prohibiting the department from "implementing any and all aspects or phases" of its planned program to defer the deportation of approximately 4 million persons in the country unlawfully and to grant them work permits. The memos outline an agency proposal that would skirt the court order by granting work permits to any immigrants physically in the United States, regardless of their legal status, so long as they have been sponsored by an employer for a Green Card within the last year.
The memos also outline plans to change the immigration regulations in order to allow foreign workers to get a Green Card based on sponsorship by an employer, even if the sponsorship has been withdrawn. Under current law, however, work-related Green Card petitions can be filed only by a U.S. employer that intends to employ the immigrant. The memos do not square that clear requirement with the Administration's proposal to let foreign workers get Green Cards when the employer no longer wishes to sponsor the worker.
Grassley's letter was also signed by senators David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Full text of the senators' letter to Johnson
