In what supporters are calling a landmark decision, President Obama on Friday issued an executive order to stop deportations of undocumented immigrants currently under 30 years of age who arrived in the country before they turned 16 and have lived in the U.S. for five years. They must also have no criminal record, and have earned a high school diploma, remained in school or served in the military.
In many ways it's a version of the DREAM Act, voted down in the U.S. Senate in the lame-duck session of Congress in 2010, but today's order does not offer citizenship or even permanent legal status, and is only good for two years. The DREAM Act would give some illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
So consider it a mini-DREAM Act that bypasses Congress, who are as intransigent on this issue as on virtually everything else that comes to down their way these days. The measure is estimated to cover about 800,000 to 1 million people.
