A new alert by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced this month that the Obama administration would grant work permits to illegal aliens who were affected by the hurricane and would assist those who missed their deportation hearings. Hurricane Matthew devastated the eastern coastline from Florida to Virginia, which would mean that any illegal aliens who were in this region could take advantage of these “immigration relief” measures.
According to the announcement USCIS would offer a “change of nonimmigrant status or extension of nonimmigrant stay for an individual currently in the United States,” essentially giving work permits and amnesty to the illegal aliens in the region that was hit by the hurricane.
The announcement also states that they will offer assistance to illegal aliens who did not appear for their deportation court hearings though no specifies on what this assistance would be were listed.
Among other benefits the USCIS will also waive fees for those who cannot afford to pay and will expedite off-campus work authorization of F-1 students and other employment authorizations applications.
This is just the latest example by the Obama administration to use natural disasters to waive immigration laws. A similar announcement was made for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Recently the Obama administration granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to countries that were the most affected by the Ebola virus. Under TPS the individuals are protected from deportation and granted work permits and fee waivers.
In 2010 Haiti was granted TPS after the massive earthquake hit the country. We are currently seeing a new surge of Haitians crossing the southern border in order to take advantage of the TPS status that doesn’t expire until July 22,2017.
Read more on this story at Judicial Watch.
