Various Immigration related Topics DACA and DAPA Deferred Action Could Boost U.S. Economy

In February 2015, a federal judge in Texastemporarily blocked the president’s executive action on immigration and allowed time for 26 states to pursue a lawsuit that would permanently stop the president’s orders.   The U.S. District Judge’s ruling put Obama’s Executive Actions on hold, and put on hold the status of 5 million illegal aliens who could have benefited from the plan — and who could have come out of the shadows and started contributing to the U.S. economy.

 In February, the Center for American Progress (CAP) analyzed the 5 million illegal aliens that might be able to take advantage of the DACA and DAPA deferred action executive order that President Obama made late in 2014.   According to the analysis, the average cost for deporting one person is $10,070, which puts the total cost at deporting that group of 5 million at about $50.3 billion.

In addition, if these five million people were deported, the US government would lose $22.6 billion in payroll taxes over five years, $41 billion added to the Social Security system over one decade, and $210 billion in additional economic growth over a decade.”

 The study says that if those 5 million immigrants are allowed to stay and contribute to the economy, they will:

•  increase the U.S. gross domestic product by as much as $210 billion.
• reduce the federal deficit by $25 billion by helping to boost economic growth.
• raise the average wages for all American workers by 0.3%.

The DHS is appealing the district court's decision to prevent the implementation of DACA and DAPA programs, but right now DHS will not be accepting applications for DAPA or for DACA cases based on the Executive Actions.
------------------------------
Frustration Caused By Processing Times of Spousal Immigration :   It usually takes about one year from the time a spousal petition is filed with CIS until the spouse has an interview at the US Consulate in Saigon.  How does this compare with spouse cases in other countries?  It is the same in all countries.   Everyone complains about the long processing time.

 An I-130 petition by a U.S. citizen to sponsor their foreign spouse takes about five months to be processed by CIS.  But that is not the end of the journey.   After CIS approves the petition, it is sent to the National Visa Center (NVC).   It is the job of the NVC to collect all of the paperwork needed to process an application overseas and then to forward the case to the U.S. Consulate for interview and approval. This is where things get bogged down.

 According to a recent report, the NVC processes 2.6 million cases per year and out of those, about 100,000 are spousal cases.   NVC deals with over 20,000 pieces of mail every day. That’s a lot of mail.

 NVC is severely backlogged. They cannot even look at a piece of urgent mail until it has been in their office for around 2 months. In one case, the sponsor struggled to get the NVC to expedite an application for a foreign spouse who was dying from cancer so she could join her U.S. citizen sponsor.   Urgent e-mails were sent and phone calls were made and still it took four months for the matter to be approved.

 Normal cases can expect at least a four to six month delay at the NVC before the file moves to the US Consulate for an interview and final processing. In other words, foreign-based spouses are very likely to wait at least a year before they are approved for immigration to the United States.

 One lawyer said, “U.S. processing times for sponsored spouses is taking too long.   It took former President H Bush (senior) just 42 days to mobilize millions of troops, thousands of vehicles and dozens of countries to fight and win Desert Storm. If President Bush could do that in 42 days, why can’t the USCIS process a spousal case in less than one year?”

------------------------------
Communist Vietnam Loves Capitalism More Than Americans Do:    It’s true that an authoritarian communist party controls Vietnam, but it looks like the communist ideology has disappeared from the hearts of Vietnam’s people. Vietnam, in fact, may actually be one of the most pro-capitalist countries on Earth.   According to the Pew Research Center, which studied economic issues in 45 nations, almost all Vietnamese people — 95 percent of them — now support capitalism.

The researchers asked if “most people are better off in a free-market economy even though some people are rich and some are poor.”  Twenty-five percent of Americans say “no”.   In Vietnam, where the ruling party once forced millions onto collective work farms, practically everyone supports a free-market economy.   Almost all Vietnamese, including many within the communist party, now embrace the capitalistic ideology.

The Pew study also measured hope for the future, which is a key ingredient in the so-called “American dream.”   But here too the United States is surpassed by Vietnam. Ninety-four percent of Vietnamese believe children today will be better off than their parents.   In America, only 30 percent of the people believe today’s kids will be better off than their parents.

------------------------------

Q.1.  When will the courts decide about implementing the DACA and DAPA plans from the Executive Actions?

 A.1.  It will probably be several months until this matter is resolved, so right now CIS is not accepting any applications based on the Executive Actions.    On 19 March, the federal judge in Texas said he will decide soon if he will issue any penalties against the Justice Department.  He believes that the Justice Department misled him about DACA recipients.

------------------------------

Q.2. Is it true that in spousal cases the sponsor should file a K3 application to bring the spouse to the US faster?

 A.2.  From what we have seen, the K3 usually does not reduce the waiting time for the foreign spouse.
------------------------------

Q.3.  We’ve heard that in keeping with a capitalistic economy in Vietnam, Viet Kieu and foreigners can now buy apartments.  Is that true?

 A.3. The  developers’ advertisements say that foreigners can buy, rent and re-sell new apartments now, and can put the apartments in their wills for their families.   However, the purchase of the apartment is actually a fifty year lease rather than a freehold sale.  Also, the buyer is required to live in Vietnam at least six months a year.