More than a million work permits issued annually for the last 6 years.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Written communiqués from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the Senate Judiciary Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee Republicans allegedly obtained by Breitbart say that President Barack Obama’s administration “has been approving work authorizations for immigrants beyond admission limits and for some categories of immigrants that Congress never intended to work in the U.S.”
The work permit approvals surpassing the the limit amounted to about 1.23 million in fiscal year 2009, 1.08 million in FY 2010, 970,277 in FY 2011, 1.24 million in FY 2012, 1.68 million in FY 2013 and 1.24 million in FY 2014, reported the right-wing news outlet.
Immigrants who received work permits include undocumented immigrants granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, immigrants granted Temporary Protective Status (TPS), spouses of guest workers who are on H4 visas, various types of foreign students, especially on F1 and J visas, immigrants granted voluntary departure, parolees, as well as asylum-seekers and refugees.
Breitbart also alleges that more than 113,800 individuals with final orders of deportation also were granted work permits in that six year span.
In addition to the raw work permit data, USCIS also provided a list of every zip code in the country, revealing where these extra work permits or EADs were issued each fiscal year:
The two zip codes with the greatest number of extra EADs in FY 2014 was in Flushing, NY (11355 and 11354) with 6,529 and 4,800 EADs. The zip code with the third most EADs in FY 2014 was Brooklyn, NY (11220) with 4,106 EADs. A zip code in San Gabriel, CA (91776) boasted the fourth most EADs at 3,803. And the zip code with the fifth most EADs was a zip code in Miami (33126) at 3,220.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies as the Center for Immigration Studies, believes that while work permits are intended as a benefit for those who are applying for legal status or as a temporary benefit, the administration has issued them to people who are not eligible for legal status.
She recently authored a report for the Center of Immigration studies that claimed 7.4 million excess work permits were issued between 2009 and 2014 in what she described as a “parallel immigrant work authorization system outside the numerical limits and categories set by Congress.â€
According to Vaughan’s assessment, “The huge number of work permits being issued above and beyond these limits inevitably reduces opportunities for U.S. workers, damages the integrity of the immigration system, and encourages illegal immigration.”
Her research found that the fastest growth in EADs over the time period were to immigrants classified as tourists, foreign students, dependents of temporary workers, and illegals. Annual issuances to these categories doubled from 2009 to 2014.