Relative of Illegals Apprehended in Raid Claims They Had Work Permits

A relative of three border surge migrants apprehended during this weekend’s immigration enforcement raids claims they had work permits granted through the Obama administration’s “deferred action” program.

Rene Morales — whose sister and her two children were apprehended Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — showed CBS46 what he said were “deferred action” work permits.

Morales’ sister and her children arrived in the U.S. in 2014 as part of the surge in unaccompanied minors and “family units,” largely from Central America, who have flooded illegally into the U.S. in recent years. Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), however, is technically only for illegal immigrants who have resided continuously in the U.S. since June 15, 2007 and were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012.

Over the weekend the Obama administration began a series of raids on illegal immigrant families who have been ordered removed but remain in the U.S. Over 120 illegal immigrants were apprehended in raids that were conducted largely in Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. Morales’ sister and her two children were taken into custody in Atlanta, according to the local CBS report.

A Republican Senate aide was hardly surprised that an illegal immigrant with final orders of deportation had been granted work permits.

Indeed, the Obama administration has issued more than 7.4 million work permits to foreign nationals from 2009-2014, beyond the congressionally-mandated annual limits. Included in that six-year span is more than 113,800 work permits granted to individuals with final orders of deportation.

Center for Immigration Studies policy studies director Jessica Vaughan was also unfazed by the idea that Morales’ illegal immigrant relatives may have been granted a work permit. She too pointed to the millions of work permits the Obama administration has granted beyond the limits set by Congress.

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