Two new reports are adding controversy to the troubled immigration system, one detailing how U.S. officials are treating illegal youths to mini-vacations and another revealing that the administration is pushing aside proper immigration applicants from family members of Americans in favor of the recent wave of kids that flooded over the border.
Quoting new United States Citizenship and Immigration Services documents, the Center for Immigration Studies said that the kids seen by Washington as education “Dreamers” are getting priority over applicants like the foreign spouses of Americans.
“The document reveals that processing of most applications for legal immigration benefits, including the highest priority family categories, such as spouses of U.S. citizens, were de-emphasized so that the agency could instead focus on approving the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals]applications,” wrote Jessica Vaughan for the center on Thursday.
“Apparently some USCIS ‘customers’ are more deserving than others,” she wrote of the kids in the DACA program.
She wrote about an Alabama man who posted a YouTube video describing the delay he and his foreign wife suffered waiting for a simple green card renewal.
Meanwhile, a Washington Post story about an effort to seize and hold illegal teens suspected of drug connections are getting treated to mini-holidays and English classes.
“During their detention, they are questioned by U.S. authorities and then transferred to a network of facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, across 15 states. While confined, they undergo psychological evaluations and take English courses. Some are allowed tourist-type activities, such as going to the beach or museums, according to Mexican consular officials in Texas. At least one youth earned a high school general equivalency diploma,” said the paper.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
