Ugandan Nkuba Kyeyos in America are jubilating after President Barrack Obama exercised his executive order that will shield illegal immigrants who have lived in the US for over five years from deportation and allow them to apply for work permits.
“If you register, pass a criminal background check and are willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you can apply to stay temporarily without fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows,” Obama said on Thursday.
Many Ugandans in the US and other Western countries are illegal immigrants who only access work using “papers” of legal people, attracting very little pay.
Others can only get menial jobs in underground businesses that don’t require work permits.
The immigrants live on tension for fear of deportation.
But Obama’s shake-up of the immigration system will only benefit immigrants who have been in the US for five years and have children staying legally in the US.
About four million people are expected to benefit from a reform package forced through using executive orders, which allow Obama to bypass Congress.
Obama used his executive order because the Republican-controlled House of Representatives refused to debate the proposal.
There are estimated to be 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
“Our immigration system is broken and everybody knows it,” Obama whose father hails from Kenya said.
Under Obama’s plan, those who don’t have “papers” but are parents of children who are US citizens or legal residents will be able to apply for work permits lasting three years.
Only parents who have lived in the US for five years will qualify.
“Our system has been broken for so long that people like my dad are locked out of it,” he said.
According to BBC, another part of the package will extend a programme that gives temporary legal status to people who arrived in the US as children.
Currently only those under the age of 30 who arrived before 2007 can apply for the programme, which was launched in 2012 and already covers roughly 1.2 million people.
Obama has abolished the age limit and extended the cut-off point to 2010, potentially extending the programme to a further 300,000 people.
Those who have studied in the US also have higher chances of legalizing their stay in the US.
“I will make it easier and first for High skilled immigrants, graduates and entreprenuers to stay and contribute to our economy,” he said.
However, Obama stressed that his plans would not offer citizenship, or entitle immigrants to the same benefits as Americans.