AURORA | When he leaves the house, Jorge Jimenez always makes sure to leave a blank check behind for his wife so she can access his bank account in the event he gets deported.
That fear of deportation has hung over Jimenez since he came to the United States from Mexico illegally in 1988.
“Even a small traffic stop could send us to deportation,” he said.
Jimenez, like many local immigrants and their advocates, cheered President Barack Obama’s executive action Nov. 20, which will allow about 5 million undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation. The immigrants who will be allowed to stay in the country have to have been here for five years, pass a background check and apply for a work permit.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services office is expected to handle the process, but according to the department, the application process has not yet started.
Jimenez, who has four children who are US citizens, including one serving in the Army, said he hopes the president’s move means he won’t have to fear being separated from his family at any moment.
He said he has long hoped to start his own business but has been reluctant to take the risk because of his legal status.
“I just need a little bit of financing and the security that everything is not going to be taken from me the next day,” Jimenez said.
The president’s plan has met stiff criticism from Republicans in Congress as well as groups pushing for tighter immigration controls.
In a statement after the announcement, Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, said Obama’s action makes it less likely that permanent immigration reform will make its way through Congress.
“President Obama wants a partisan political wedge issue, not meaningful, sensible, compassionate immigration reform. The president’s unilateral actions will make it harder for congress to fix the immigration system, and the worst part is — that seems to be exactly his intention,” he said in a statement.
Coffman said he supports “a step-by-step approach that starts with securing our borders” and has sponsored a law that would allow young, undocumented immigrants to serve in the military and earn citizenship, but he said the president’s executive action was not the way to go about reforming immigration.
Opponents of illegal immigration also sharply condemned Obama’s move.
Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that opposes illegal immigration and wants tighter controls on legal immigration, said in a statement that the move will harm legal residents seeking work.
“If allowed to proceed, the president’s amnesty program will take an immeasurable toll on American workers and taxpayers. Millions of illegal aliens will suddenly be allowed to compete with struggling American workers for scarce jobs. In addition, these illegal aliens will be eligible for billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded benefits,” he wrote.
But many close to home in the labor community praised the president’s actions, and said they hope it stretches to even more immigrants.
Pedro Carrillo of the Service Employees International Union Local 105 commended the move.
“This is a positive step in the right direction for thousands of our families here in Colorado. However for many of us that are not covered under the President’s executive order, we must keep fighting until we see a comprehensive solution pass and become law,” he said.
Advocates for undocumented immigrants have lobbied the president for years to take action on his own if Congress didn’t act.
Jimenez said he wished the president would have done something sooner, but he is glad he did something.
“I think he could have done it earlier than today, but better late than never,” he said.
Dalila Lopez-Sanchez is another local immigrant who hopes the president’s plan will mean she no longer has to worry about
deportation.
Lopez, 40, said she arrived in the United States illegally in 1990 with her family. She and her family worked on farms in California and she graduated from high school there before moving to Colorado in 2006.
Lopez has four children who are US citizens said she has lived in constant fear of being separated from them.
“You are always afraid, you always have that stress on you,” she said.
Lopez said she hopes a work permit will mean she can live openly, apply for loans and travel without having to worry about being picked up by immigration authorities.
“We will be able to have an identity as a human being in the place where you live and you already feel at home,” she said.
Lopez said she was frustrated last summer when the president announced that he would wait to take executive action until after the elections. But now that the president has acted, she said she is relieved.
“I feel that it is long overdue,” she said. “A lot of families were just on their last string of hope.”
How can he have a bank account?? The Patriot Act requires banks to get your SSN for all accounts, so how does he still have an account unless the gov’t already knows he’s here and chooses not to seize the account??
How ignorant can you be? I mean, really! I am against the executive action by OUR President, however, Congress has failed to act. Let’s wait and see FACTUAL info about criminals getting deported immediately as opposed to separating families. I’m with you about not making it easy for them to settle in.
I am a first generation LATINO, I didn’t choose to be of Hispanic descent, I just got lucky. My whole family are conservatives who got nothing easy. Most in the UNDOCUMENTED community would agree that they are not expecting a handout but rather a path to security. If they broke the law by entering here illegally than the wait time should automatically be 15 years and then on a path to residency followed by citizenship.
Do your research before expressing the discomfort and cluelessness of that particular issue. I would love a back and forth with you on this issue to better understand and comprehend whats out there… what do you say ?
Does this mean you went to school in the USA? We were taught that Congress makes the laws and the President sees that they are executed. This is not what is happening in this instance and just because Congress has not acted; does not mean they are forced to act. It also doesn’t mean the President gets to act unilaterally.
Not expecting a handout? Neither are the 20 million US citizens and legal residents who need a job and who now have to compete with 5 million plus illegals plus all the 600000 + DACA kids for a scarse job. They also have to compete with the 2 million who are allowed to legally come into this country on new green cards and or work visas every year. We just got thrown out the door with the bath water to help out a bunch of illegals who don’t have any right to be here!
US citizens don’t have a pass when it comes to any laws so why should we give illegals a pass? and why is it they are allowed to benefit from a law that was passed over a 100 years ago and had to do with slavery and not people coming here illegally and having kids? The Congress at the time never even dreamed about airplanes; car; etc so don’t you think its past time we clarified the 14th?
Lastly have you ever given a thought to US citizen families when one of their family is put into jail for whatever reason? and that breaks up their families. People might say its the fault of the person who broke the law so why should we care about illegals who knowing broke the law when they crossed over the border and or overstayed that visa?
There are too many double standards here and its not right or fair for the vast majority of the people who abide by the laws of this land because they are Americans who respect the laws and or who are legal immigrants who want to exist within their new country.
NO amnesty. No work permits. NO nothing but deportation.
His question was how is it possible. You only need a tax ID (SSN in your case) for US citizens a government-issued document for noncitizens is all that is required. They can also create a corporate tax ID for non-citizens. Homeland security isn’t as magical as you might think. They can only seize an account if it is tied to illegal activity such as drugs or human trafficking.
same as YOUR republicans who hire illegal workers and never go to jail for it!
Also if an American traveled to Mexico and stayed beyond the term of the law you’d be lucky not to be thrown in jail. How come every other country is allowed to enforce their legal immigration procedures and we aren’t? My sister-in-law came here LEGALLY and it’s not easy, nor should it be.
did she marry a bum for the green card?
There is an awful lot of people in CO and in the USA that are going to be having stagnant wages for decades to come if Congress does not defund this action through the power of the purse. That is if they even can find a job to begin even with our state doing better than a lot of other states financially.
Congress can do this with a omnibus funding bill except for all offices of DHS and do the latter with a short term spending bill until the new Congress take over in January.
bologny, go away, swallow it! with hair and all! republicans are the ones hiring illegals, paying them crap, so YOU can have cheap food on the table. suck. it.
Everyone hires illegals. Don’t be a tool.
I think his point was to get out of the sheep mindset and say the GOP will be on board. They wont, they benefit from illegal immigrants just as much as everyone else. The fact is if we get rid of the illegals in states that rely on them we destroy those local economies. Those economies that rely on these immigrants are often republican (farming, manufacture and food processing) We rarely associate illegal immigrants with the liberal havens of tech companies, media etc.
If we really did immediately deport all immigrants we would have stagnant wages like jmfay suggested. Unfortunately is would be from a floundering economy, not from the sudden rush of work…
Who made sure we couldn’t get independent contractors in the e verify we passed in 2006? That would be Andrew Romanoff who just lost the cd 6 race and the CO Democrats so this is on both parties. Please do not blame the Republicans as they bring up e verify every year and who kills it but the Democrats!!!
BY the way; we are an INdependent!
NO amnesty. NO work permits. NO nothing but deportation.
You’re a sheep and a moron. Thanks for clarification.
See below!
These sappy “I might get deported” stories from the press are tiresome. We’ve all heard them a million times. Not to mention that 98 percent of removals (the correct term) are outright criminals, or those on ICEs priority list. How about an article with some meat, Brandon? I know, that would be work.
Ok, I can understand Obama’s desire to do something for the illegals (ok, it’s about the votes), but this is an unnecessary blunder and huge disaster for the country. He had two more years to work this with congress before his term ends. There was no need to rush into a half a** solution. Now real reform won’t happen for at least a decade. At least. Meanwhile the stream of illegals (already 50k a year) crossing the border will turn into a river as the economy improves and will be having the same conversation over and over again. Same stupid mistake Reagan made in 1986.
So why wouldn’t the republicans step in and make it a complete solution. They always talk about border security, why isn’t now a time to tack that on any immigration bill that might pass. Get rid of criminals immigrants, keep families together and strengthen our borders. Doesn’t that sound like something that could come from the party of family values?
Don’t forget the visa overstays which has no fix in this bill!
They are not deporting all the criminals they can as there are nearly 1 million who are just in this country and no one knows where they are. With killing Secured Communities; no one is going to find out either!
Where is the mandatory e verify? so we kill the jobs magnet?
NO amnesty. NO work permits. NO nothing but deportation.
While
Millions of Americans search desperately for a job, Emperor Obama has become an
Imperialist himself, urged on by the fanatical La Raza zealots, who are
demanding open borders and we now have a far worse situation–a divided nation.
Americans should neither Trust the Liberal-Democrats or even the Republican
career politicians, as both parties have an agenda that is governed by the
corporate special interests that buy their loyalty. Doesn’t the US public understand that we are
brought and sold by sordid lobbyists and even unions? The money that passes
hands into either party is phenomenal and hidden through sly manipulations of
our rule of law. Not all, but most the powerful lawmakers are hypocrites as
they swear an oath to the founding document, the US constitution and then lie.
It seems
there are several ways that Obamas executive order can be severed in the bud,
but will the Republicans take that avenue, as they want cheap labor for there
irredeemable dishonest businesses. If they don’t collapse Obamas plan, more
criminal illegal aliens will pour across the Southern border or come as a
supposedly tourist and will vote illegally.
Their a
few politicians who we should place our trust in, and that is Sen. Jeff
Sessions of Alabama. Few have been at the forefront to
fight the executive order of the illegal alien invasion his royal Highness in
the Oval office. As I see it, people who enter a sovereign country without
permission have broken the law, and should be branded as a criminal. Both e
political parties have played with immigration policies to suit their campaign
donors. Sworn to protect every American, they should be tarred and feathered.
Washington, has taxpayer’s money to burn, but
gives little help to veterans once they return from service. It’s left up to
private organizations to retrieve the lives of soldiers who have given their
all, but give everything to foreign national’s that will include the
unaffordable health care, (except for free Obamacare, Medicaid) education and welfare.
Systems will be overloaded and our own families, friends and loved ones will
suffer inestimably.
IT’S AN OUTRAGE THAT
OBAMAS MINIONS ARE OFFERING BUSINESSES $3.000.00, IF THEY TURN ASIDE AMERICAN
WORKERS TO GIVE THOSE JOBS TO CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS.
Then we have Ferguson, Missouri where Black Americans is protesting the incident with the
death of Michael Brown. The Leftist media are using this tragedy to escape the
growing uproar over the invasion by illegal aliens. Instead of demonstrating
over this terrible situation, they should join millions of Americans already
out of work to be surely substituted by criminal illegal aliens—as well as a
national protest of whites, browns and others who came to the US through the
front gate.
Not
much more to say that Americans gripe a lot, but don’t stand up to be counted?
We can only blame the state on America on our own unfocused
self. The implications of Obama’s executive actions are equivocally horrendous.
I flew into Los Angles today for Thanksgiving and the traffic was so dense, I
just couldn’t believe it. It’s been many years since I moved my family to the
outskirts of Indianapolis. I wanted my son to be
brought-up in the farming areas, without the drug trade and the illegal alien
invasion as in the cities. Remember the wealthy and politicians live in their
gated ‘Ivory Towers’ so the overpopulated cities, the roads almost impassable
and a infrastructure will get irretrievably worse as Obamas plan comes to fulfillment?
Blame
yourself when low income Americans are pushed out of jobs, especially now that
Obama’s instigators and will be in the unemployment lines. Personally, I am
okay my benefits are constant, because I saved my money and assets. But as
Americans ignored the promise of this growing dictatorship; a government that
administers to all the ‘Deadbeats’ and the Feds granting something for nothing.
Unknown numbers of single Mothers who cannot meet their debts, but the WH can
offer foreign pregnant mothers free delivery and cash payments afterwards.
Research answers to
Obama’s subversive executive order of rewarding criminal illegal aliens. A New
Documentary that Highlight our insecure border and
rampant lawlessness. Sheriffs
around the country have had enough and are planning to make their voices heard
“We are being Marginalized” with a march on Washington D.C. on December 10th. My personal
opinion Americans who believe in the Rule of Law should support the Sheriffs
and join in the demonstration.
You can learn more about
the border Sheriffs of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, who are under
funded, undermanned and a US Government that close the eyes to there grim
plight. The illegal aliens, the drugs and the bodies, they must deal with daily
at http://www.borderstatesofamerica.com/
Speak your mind as a voter at http://www.numbersusa.com/ check this site that
includes phone Numbers and Mailing Addresses of Members of Congress
contact them at: http://www.contactingthecongress or
direct line to central switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 or 1-800-224-3121.
What a sad, sad life you live. Please move to alabama, or maybe spend some time in north korea and witness the leader you describe.
Cut the personal attacks and make an intelligent argument. TIA.
Emperor Obama is an intelligent comment? “urged on by the fanatical La Raza zealots” Are you F&^%ing kidding me? ALL presidents since Eisenhower have taken executive action on immigration. It’s just a sad world this guy lives. We need real comprehensive immigration reform. Until then it is well in his right to use executive action.
1) For years Obama stated that he couldn’t ignore immigration laws.
2) The majority of US Citizens are against amnesty.
3) A real leader molds consensus and gets a bill passed. A dictator forces it down their throats.
1. We need real comprehensive immigration reform. His executive order was a stop gap measure that can be overturned by the very next president. The GOP should step up and help make comprehensive immigration reform. We need ACTUAL border security as well as not breaking up families. Step up with ideas instead of calling him a dictator for doing what ALL PRESIDENTS SINCE EISENHOWER have done.
2. Even if the “majority” of citizens are against amnesty, they will be even more against the citizens left behind being on welfare and leaches to our society. Keep families together
3. You are a moron with no grasp on history.
Open borders via perpetual amnesties is the end of the middle class who has to support this largess by way of increased taxes and medical insurance.
Know some of you dislike my referring to history – my life experience. But let me remind some of you that the laws we have evolved through couple centuries. In 1940 era, with WWII fighting, everyone working in factories, all involved in war effort, we had labor shortages then. Pennsylvania RR needed to upgrade rail system for heavier engines and cars, taller cars, and they needed labor. Ran a passenger train to Mexico, hired labor there under contract. Paid so much in cash each month, banked so much in Mexican system, and held back some as bond that all laborers would return to Mexico at end of contract. They ran enough trains to rotate workers for vacations, visits with family, but reworked all the ballast, rails, took out tunnels across their system. The workers slept on the train, ate in the dining cars, with their never leaving the work areas or going into town. I was in high school, with 2 rail systems Pennsylvania and Nickel Plate that traversed valley, passing our home about 100 yards away. We could see them along the tracks, but under view of RR employees. ———————–If we need labor working in fields or picking fruit, work VISA could be contracted, employer responsible to transport them here by leased equipment or sleeping arrangements, and also they return home at end of contract. They receive paperwork for all their income at that time. Those coming for school-education report to registrar, get college housing on campus, and also report when they have returned home. —– All others apply, register, fill out paperwork at embassy in country, and their country required to supply police, medical, health records to Embassy personnel. Then, and only then could they move to USA, with application for citizenship initiated. If they don’t intend to become citizens, don’t apply. ——————–I see the turmoil in browsing the net of all the people crossing borders , entering countries because their country is too dangerous or expensive, or threatening them, YET THEY BRING THAT SAME CRAPPY STYLE HERE AND WANT US TO ACCEPT AND CHANGE OUR WAY OF LIFE. Would USA be so attractive, if it was same as conditions they are trying to escape? And I saw too many who came here after 2000, and especially after 2009 who want to come, work, send money back, and never become citizens. Many who come to rob, steal, sell drugs, even grow drugs in our mountains and forests, and fund drug cartels south of our border, or within our borders. USA became what it is by accepting immigrants, who became citizens, spoke English (plus any other languages), but today we cannot tell where they came from, unless they tell us. I personally have known 3 African American families (all born in Ghana, educated in England, came to USA and became US citizens. Blacks came to USA from every country on this planet, yet are referred to as African Americans. Are they Americans, and if so, which country did they come from? South America, Spain, England, where? Many of their children cannot find Africa on a map? I owned rental house in Aurora 1980 to 2003, renting to any race, but all speaking English, and different religions, some single, some married, but I never asked. Only know what they told me. At rental I only questioned enough to fill out a rental lease, and had many calling me Dad. Also managed some properties in that period, with same policies. Only had one tenant (last one) who burned me with not paying utilities, not paying last month though I gave him 2 months notice I intended to sell. I paid up, sold house in 2003.
This is long, but some have attacked me as thinking only of myself- typical liberal, since he (?) posts similar comments to everyone, on any subject, so I suspect he is paid troll, or enjoys his mothers basement.
Think the blacks, legal immigrants, and illegal aliens should all take a deep breath, and review just what this Executive Order does, or does not do. It does not promise any path to citizenship, no benefits, and also does not allow illegal aliens to sign up for healthcare (ACA). Put in order for millions of green cards, that will not be produced until after turn of year, when House and Senate can cut off funding for printing, or administering the program, and also does not allow the agency that administers this to fund the program from fees charged or donated. So just what does it do? It is another promise that cannot be kept, but keeps folks hoping. (Is that not the story of his election in 2009 (hope and change)? There is one unintended consequence, though in employers do not have to provide health insurance, (a $3,000 incentive to hire illegal alien, and replace a legal immigrant, or a US citizen. I suspect that will cause some anger and frustration in certain areas. Also any action taken by lame duck session, can be taken down one by one, next year. If I were here illegally, I believe I would not go rushing in to register, stabilizing paperwork of my presence and residence in US. I suspect Employers next year will be checking their employment records closely from now on, since I do believe they will be held accountable in future. And with all the riots, vandalism of properties, and demonstrations, I believe next year we will see more rigid policing and court actions. USA cannot afford to keep on losing businesses, jobs, and forcing more into poverty. AGAIN, I SEE HOPE AND CHANGE, WITHOUT ACTION OR IMPROVEMENTS FOR OUR CITIZENS. Lot more Millionaires and Billionaires in last 6 years, with loss of middle class.
Why on Earth would he be worried about being deported? Most open border of any modern Country! Free trip back to the homeland dude!! All these years and they should jump to the front of the line, rather than do it correctly .. you know like millions of others had to do!! Oh, and those immigrants don’t have to “Live in fear”.. cause they are here with our blessings and sincere hope for their futures!!