Bay Area home to 65,000 Deferred Deportation Eligible Immigrants

A recent study conducted by the Immigration Policy Center, an advocacy and research group based in Washington D.C, said that the Bay Area may contain one of the largest numbers of illegal immigrants who might benefit from the new Obama Young illegal immigrant law. According to the research, more than 65,000 young illegal immigrants, including 19,000 minors, are eligible for Obama’s Deferred Deportation program which would allow them temporary 2 year work permits.

A spokesperson for the center, Wendy Sefsaf, said that the immigrants spread all over the country. “They are everywhere; they are in every congressional district, every state.” She said.

The study also stated that the Bay Area is not only home to illegal immigrants from Mexico, as are most of the States in the country. A large number of Asian immigrants also live here who could benefit from the law.

The total of figure of 65,000 illegal immigrants in Bay Area is 12,000 immigrants more than the figure in Arizona, which is said to be 53,000 immigrants. Also New Jersey and Georgia, which respectively have 39,000 immigrants each living in these states, are far behind the number in the Bay Area.

Elaborating the details of immigrants living in the area, the report classified the largest concentration of undocumented immigrants in South Bay and East Bay areas.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said that her district has more than 9,000 eligible illegal immigrants. Lofgren, a supporter of the Obama executive order, said that she meets young illegal immigrants from her district all the time when she visits her local colleges and universities. She said that the figure from the study might differ from the actual number living in the area.

“For the most part,” she said, “the kids I have met are tremendous strivers. These are people who basically have lived her all their lives, who are Americans but they do not have their papers.”

Although, throughout the country President Obama’s executive order has received support mostly from the Democrat lawmaker districts than the Republican, some states have been exception to this.

Southern California Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack and Rep. Ed Calvert each had above 9,000 illegal immigrants in their districts, who were eligible under the program.

Across the nation, the district having the least number of immigrants was D-West Virginia, with as low as 60 young undocumented immigrants. The highest one was in Phoenix district of Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Arizona, with more than 19,000 undocumented beneficiaries living there.

Sefsaf stated that the figures were not exact and could differ from district to district. She said that once the program begins and applications start coming in at the Department for Homeland Security (DHS), the true figures will be known.

The program after which the whole country is anxiously waiting and different organizations are conducting researches, is to begin its operations from the 15^th of this month. Late last week, the DHS and the U.S immigration released guidelines for potential undocumented beneficiaries of the program to follow in the procedure. The DHS also announced the expenditures of application fees and temporary work permit fees the immigrants would have to pay, the former being $105 per applicant and the latter $465 per applicant.

Tags: Department of Homeland Security, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Immigration Policy Center, undocumented immigrants, United States, US Immigration