Illegal alien kids lining up for two-year work permits, will bring even more competition for scarce jobs

Update August 16th:  This is funny, the Chicago story I linked in my previous update has modified the numbers of “dreamers” who lined up in Chicago.  It is now 11,000 instead of 50,000.  Also, see my post at PTPR today about CASA de Maryland advising its ‘clients’ to not file if they have had any run-in with the law.

Update:  50,000 illegal alien “kids” lined up in Chicago today to apply to get two-year work permits and volunteer to be  fingerprinted and investigated.   Whew!  No wonder Chicago is in such trouble—imagine what it has cost just to put that many non-citizens through school!

….. and wouldn’t you think that those in the refugee resettlement business would be worried since the kids who got here illegally will be able to legally work under the Obama “amnesty” and compete for jobs with legal refugees?   No one involved with refugees seems to ever express that concern.  Why is that?

Funny thing is that the only real employment that might come out of this are the immigration attorney jobs!

But I digress, here is the story from Minnesota as the Obama “amnesty” gets underway today (hat tip: Cliff):

At last, the wait is over for Pedro Ramos Ortiz.

Starting Wednesday, he and thousands of other young illegal immigrants in Minnesota can apply to stay under a new policy that would spare them from being deported.

“I had to wait for a miracle and here it is,” said Ortiz, 27.

Two months ago, President Obama announced that the federal government will allow illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children and who have attended school here the chance to stay and receive a work permit. The president’s action does not offer citizenship or permanent residency.

As many as 1.7 million people nationwide may be eligible to escape the threat of deportation under the new policy.

Meanwhile, local immigration lawyers say they’re preparing for a deluge of clients wanting to apply.

“In my office, everybody’s nervous,” said Mary Baquero, an attorney in Minneapolis. “We’re talking about how we’re going to handle it, because a lot of people are going to apply.” Her office has scheduled conferences for Thursday, Friday and Saturday for immigrants interested in applying; already, those sessions are full, she said.

It’s been a busy summer for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, which serves low-income immigrants.

The center has hosted public workshops and has fielded phone calls from people wanting more information about the new policy.

Read it all in the Star Tribune.

Requirements of the Obama work permit process will mean not one “kid” will have been given his reprieve before the election!

Last month I wrote about the Obama election year gimmick here at my other blog.  This is a summary of what we learned then:

* The dreamer kids must pay a $465 processing fee.

* According to the report I posted (interesting that the story is no longer available!), the feds expect to approve 890,000 applicants (they think they will receive 3000 applications a day!) and they aren’t staffed-up yet to handle the application process.  (BTW, we admit around 70,000 refugees a year and the unemployment rate is likely as much as 60% or higher in some parts of the country.  What will 890,000 additional low-skilled workers do to those numbers?)

* They expect 151,000 to be rejected after going through the lengthy application process and I want to know what happens to the “rejects.”

* If they make it through the process they get a 2-year work permit, no citizenship.  What then? Do they have to go through this again in two years?

* The kids (up to 30 years old!) will be photographed and fingerprinted (LOL! so much for the Holder/Perez Justice Department’s objections to photo-IDs). And, the feds will know where they and their family live.

* Here is the timeline which clearly indicates that no “dreamer” will get through the process until after the election:

2-10 days to scan and file application

4 weeks for photos and fingerprints

6 weeks for background check

3 months for government to decide if one is granted a work permit or rejected (again, what happens to rejects?)

It will be interesting to see if the “kids” get much out of this or whether the O-man snookered a whole lot of “dreamers” (again!).

“Stakeholders” invited to National Refugee Consultation next month

Every year those involved in the refugee resettlement industry hold a national pow-wow to discuss the program.  Here is this year’s invite to “stakeholders.”   If you are a taxpayer, you are a stakeholder!

From Eskinder Negash, Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement:

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to invite you to the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) 2012 National Consultation, Transforming Hope into a Brighter Future, to be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Crystal City, Virginia on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 and Thursday, September 20, 2012. The annual Consultation serves as a platform for our stakeholders to exchange ideas, engage in discussions, and broaden relationships that will shape and grow the program. This year, as in years past, I look forward to your participation, at a time in which the refugee program faces new challenges and explores new directions.

Go here and follow links to sign up!

If you can’t make it to Arlington, VA, ask your member of Congress to send a staffer to represent you.

Registration closes August 31st.

CASA de Maryland’s New American Initiative!

And, hey, you can have a twofer when in the DC area!   You can follow-up the refugee pow-wow by going a few miles up Interstate 95 to Baltimore and catch the National Immigrant Integration Conference here scheduled to begin on September 22nd!   Update:  Here is my post on this meeting at my other blog.