Thousands Of Illegal Young Adults Apply For Legal Status ...

Posted on: 9:21 pm, August 16, 2012, by Staff Writer, updated on: 09:18pm, August 16, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA. (CNN) ? As of today, thousands of young adults who were brought here illegally as children ? now have the chance to apply for legal status.? Miguel Marquez has more on the change in policy and why its critics believe the plan is a bad idea. ?

23 year old Justino Mora was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was eleven. He is one of one-point-seven million young people here illegally that beginning today have a shot at something they never thought they?d have ? legal status in the u-s.

?At the beginning it felt like a dream. I didn?t actually believe it.?

But it?s a temporary program ? only lasting two years and only those 15 to 31 years old need apply. Each applicant will also need a slew of documents to prove they entered the u-s before the age of 16, are in or have finished school and have been in the u-s for at least five years. ?

?Over here I have my vaccination card some medical records??

(Reporter: ?this proves you were here all along and were vaccinated and so it is a record of where you were on certain days.?)

?Definitely, exactly.?

Workshops ? teaching immigrants how to apply ? jam packed here in Chirla ? an LA based immigrant rights group. 36-thousand people have attended the workshops and the group expects to help 10-thousand or more immigrants apply.

?Here in California, the program could have a massive impact. In the Los Angeles school district alone more than 200,000 students could qualify.?

Mora ? a junior studying political and computer science at the University of California Los Angeles ? will apply along with his brother and sister. ?

(Reporter: ?this must be incredibly emotional.?)

?It is (laughs) yeah it really is.?

It is emotional on all sides of the immigration debate. When President Obama announced the policy change in a high-profile press conference two months ago, it ignited fire on the political right, including Rush Limbaugh.

?So President Obama went out to the rose garden today and basically announced amnesty for illegal?s in what many people are calling a jobs program for illegal?s.?

The argument ? making it legal for the young undocumented to work here will take jobs away from Americans. Mora counters he wants to create jobs here. ?

?I want to establish my own business, hopefully creating computer software and working for either Google or Microsoft.?

Big dreams for him ? a nightmare for others. A fight over immigration reform on the horizon. Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles. ?

Source: http://fox2now.com/2012/08/16/thousands-of-illegal-young-adults-apply-for-legal-status/

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