Dems Praise Waiver Granting 3,000 Temporary Resident Status

An executive order signed in June 2012 by President Barack Obama has resulted in more than 3,000 young South Carolinians being granted temporary resident status in the past year, according to a story on Tuesday in the Associated Press.

Obama signed the order, called the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals program, after the DREAM Act stalled in Congress. Release of the statistics comes in the wake of immigration reform legislation passing in the Senate, but facing a much rougher road to passage in the Republican-led House.

South Carolina's House Majority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Richland) praised the news, telling Patch:  

"I fully support this program and commend President Obama's leadership on the issue. If you were brought here as a child and spend the majority of your life in America, it would be reprehensible to separate you from your family and society for a crime your parents committed. Now it's up to Congress to pass the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill that solves this problem once and for all by securing our border and establishing a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants who currently live in the shadows. I call on the South Carolina Congressional delegation to put politics aside and pass this pro-business, pro-family immigration bill."

State Sen. Larry Martin told the AP that Obama signed the order as a response to Congress' failure to solve the immigration problem.

Among the key elements of the order:

• A person must have come to America prior to the age of 16, can't be older than 31 and must be a high school graduate or in school, or have served in the military. They also can't have been convicted of a serious crime.
• Those people who meet the criteria can receive federal work permits, attend public colleges, apply for a job and get a driver's license.
• Obama's order does not give those who meet the criteria legal status, but it defers deportation for as long as four years.