February 4-February 17, 2015 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 19
Law & Accounting
A
new
recruitment
source may result
from
President
Obama’s executive order of
Nov. 20, 2014. That order would
make work authorization avail-
able for certain undocumented
aliens. Articles on worker short-
ages for construction and other
jobs have appeared in the press
over the last several months.
n
Work Authorization
Planned.
Undocumented aliens
who may seek to become docu-
mented to work are deemed
low priorities for deportation
enforcement; the order governs
enforcement criteria of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Secu-
rity and its Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agency.
Approximately 4 million peo-
ple nationally are expected to
be eligible for a three-year work
authorization document and
related Social Security number.
This is out of some 11 million
people who are thought to be
unlawfully present in the U.S.
in violation of the federal Immi-
gration and Nationality Act.
n
Procedures Not Yet Estab-
lished.
Procedures for seek-
ing work authorization under
the new criteria are expected
to be finalized between mid-
February and mid-May. The
documentation issued would
satisfy an employer’s Form I-9,
“Employment Eligibility Verifi-
cation,” obligation by establish-
ing identity and authorization
to work.
n
Eligibility Criteria.
The
new group to be eligible are
parents of U.S. citizens and law-
ful permanent residents.
Such a parent must have been
present in the U.S. since Jan.
1, 2010. The parent’s U.S. citi-
zen or lawful permanent resi-
dent child must have been born
before Nov. 20, 2014, but may
be of any age. The parent must
have little or no criminal his-
tory.
The program for parents is
known as Deferred Action for
Parental Accountability, or
DAPA. Deferred action refers
to delaying the relatively costly
initiation of immigration court
proceedings to assess a person’s
deportability and enforce his or
her departure from the U.S.
The second group to bene-
fit results from an expansion
of a 2012 executive order that
deprioritized
the deporta-
tion of aliens
who arrived
in the U.S.
as children
before reach-
ing age 16.
These “child-
hood arriv-
als,” as they
are referred
to, must have
little or no
criminal his-
tory. This program is known as
Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, or DACA.
Whereas the 2012 order had
an applicant age limit of 31,
the 2014 order regarding “child-
hood arrivals” has no age limit
for applicants. The previous
order required that the child
who arrived before age 16 lived
in the U.S. since June 15, 2007;
the 2014 order requires continu-
ous residence since Jan. 1, 2010.
Work authorization for three
years will be granted to child-
hood arrivals who are eligible.
Previously, work authoriza-
tion for two years was granted.
Extensions of previous work
authorization as a “childhood
arrival” are possible.
n
Value of Work Authoriza-
tion.
Having U.S. work authori-
zation documentation available
for more workers may make
employers able to take on more
work. Workers may become
more mobile among employers
as undocumented people who
are already working may have
hesitated to change jobs, know-
ing their documentation to be
faulty or nonexistent. Some
individuals who may have
established their own business-
es for making a living may be
inclined to seek employment
instead.
Some employers – owners,
contractors or subcontractors –
may know of undocumented
workers who they will want
to encourage to become doc-
umented under the executive
order.
In addition to construction
industry jobs, a number of other
industries that have year-round
need for workers with less than
a bachelor’s or high school
degree are thought to have
higher numbers of undocu-
mented workers. These include
agriculture and food process-
ing businesses, janitorial and
housekeeping services, elder
and child care services, hotel
and restaurant staffing, and
some manufacturing industries.
n
Preparation to Apply.
In anticipation of applying,
a potential applicant should
obtain multiple documents – a
certified copy of his or her birth
certificate, a passport from the
country of citizenship and birth
certificates with parents’ names
for all children. As proof of lon-
gevity in the U.S., evidence like
school records, lease or home
purchase records, employment
records, travel records, medical
records, tax filings and financial
records should all be collect-
ed, evidencing life in the U.S.
beginning before Jan. 1, 2010.
Certified copies of any criminal
records, including arrests, dis-
missals and convictions, should
be gathered.
Application fees to the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration
Services are likely to be about
$500. Planning or saving for
those costs should begin.
n
Deportation Defense.
Aliens already scheduled for
deportation proceedings in
immigration court may be able
to negotiate with the Immigra-
tion and Customs Enforcement
to terminate their proceedings
on grounds they meet the crite-
ria for either DeferredAction for
Childhood Arrivals or Deferred
Action for Parental Account-
ability. Having gathered the
noted evidence to demonstrate
eligibility for either form of
prosecutorial discretion will be
valuable.
n
Deportation Priorities.
Undocumented aliens for
whom deportation will remain
a government priority will be
those posing a national secu-
rity threat, those with felony
convictions, those with seri-
ous misdemeanor convictions,
those involved in fraudulent
transactions and those without
close family ties in the United
States. Thorough background
checks will be undertaken on
each applicant for a “Deferred
Action” classification. Those
contemplating submitting an
application should make a
realistic assessment of likely
eligibility.
s
Carol Hildebrand
Attorney, Sherman &
Howard LLC, Denver
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