Thousands Of Jamaicans Among ‘Dreamers’ In The US
Many Jamaican ‘Dreamers’ In The United States
In June 2012, the Obama administration established a policy that sought to provide legal shelter for certain individuals who were carried to the United States illegally as minors.
The immigration policy most commonly known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) allowed these minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and made them eligible to receive work permits in the United States.
And as of 2017, approximately 800,000 persons have already enrolled in the program by DACA. In order to be eligible, illegal immigrants must have entered the United States before to their 16th birthday and prior to June 2007, be currently in school, a high school graduate or be honourably discharged from the military, be under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, and not have been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor or three other misdemeanors, or otherwise pose a threat to national security.
However, the program does not provide lawful status or a path to citizenship, nor does it provide eligibility for federal welfare or student aid.
The vast majority of persons enrolled in the program are from Mexico. Jamaica has a total of 6,627 DACA approvals to date – 3,435 Jamaicans had their initial applications approved, while another 3,192 Jamaicans had their renewal applications approved.
Statistics from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) show the following figures for other Caribbean countries:
Dominican Republic – 3,115, by ‘Tobago” (presumably Trinidad and Tobago) – 2,096, Guyana -1,266, and Venezuela with 3,099 approved initial requests.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced the end of the DACA program – essentially placing an expiration date on the protections provided to ‘Dreamers’.
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