California residents may be interested to learn that 2,000 people received three-year work permits in the mail by mistake. The work permits were issued to foreign-born individuals under the Obama administration’s executive immigration action taken last November. However, the work permits were later found to be erroneous because they were issued after a judge had issued a temporary injunction on the immigration action.
On May 7, the Justice Department filed a court document detailing how the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had discovered the work authorization mistake. According to a spokesperson for the Justice Department, the government was taking immediate steps to correct the mistake and determine how the error occurred. According to the Justice Department, the 2,000 individuals who received the three-year work permits had been eligible for a 2012 program that would allow them to receive two-year work permits. The three-year work permits that were sent are now being converted to two-year work permits.
The Obama administration’s executive immigration actions were blocked after an injunction was issued on Feb. 16 by a U.S. District Court judge in Texas. The injunction was issued after representatives from 26 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration. Although the court order was supposed to put the plan for immigration reform on hold, the federal government was found to have implemented parts of the plan on two different occasions since the injunction.
A person who would like to emigrate to the U.S. in order to work may want to talk to an immigration attorney. Because immigration policy is changing rapidly, an attorney may be able to explain how the changes may affect a client’s unique situation.
Source: ABC News, “US: Work Permits Issued After Immigration Action Delayed,” Juan A. Lozano, May 8, 2015
