Provide a path to citizenship

More than 2,300 young Hawaii residents who were born abroad and lack U.S. citizenship may be encouraged by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s promise to honor President Barack Obama’s program to protect them. This is good news, assuming it indicates a real change in Romney’s views on immigration reform.

In Denver for tonight’s presidential debate, Romney told The Denver Post in a sit-down interview Monday night aboard his campaign bus that people "who have received the special visa that the president has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid" if he is elected.

Referring to the $465 visa enrollment fee, he added, "I’m not going to take something that they’ve purchased."

Obama’s executive order, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, provides a reprieve from deportation to an estimated 936,930 young people. They must have arrived in the U.S. before age 16, lived here continuously for at least five years, are in school, are high school graduates or are military veterans in good standing and have been no older than age 30 on June 15, when the order was issued. If they qualify, they can work in the United States for up to two years, with the possibility of renewals.

The government has said the information it collects from the program will not be shared with law enforcement authorities. Even so, by coming forward, young people who apply for the program are not in the clear.

"It is not a guarantee," Maile Hirota, chairwoman of the Hawaii chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told a Honolulu workshop in August. "It provides a temporary relief from removal, but it can be revoked at any time. This is not a permanent status. It’s not a green card. It’s not a path to U.S. citizenship."

This uncertainty hangs over many of these young people who, through no fault of their own, cannot pursue their dreams in the only country they know. Such is the fate of "Alex," a 23-year-old University of Hawaii student whose mother, with the help of a smuggler, carried him from Mexico into the United States when he was a baby. A driver’s license and teenage work permit were not available to him. A standout ROTC cadet in high school, he gave up on the promise of the service academies and a military career. He told the Star-Advertiser’s Susan Essoyan that he understands that his life entails risks and fears that his peers would never experience.

"There is nothing, really, you can do except just hope," he said. But people like Alex need more than hope. They need a clear path forward to citizenship in the country that has become their home.

During the GOP presidential primary campaign, Romney said he would veto the DREAM Act, a bill blocked by Republicans in the Senate that would have provided a path to legal status for children brought to America by their parents illegally if they join the military or complete some college. A Romney spokesman said in August that Obama’s executive order is "unprecedented and raises large questions as to whether it is within his authority."

So it’s not surprising that the Obama campaign responded with skepticism. Romney’s latest statement "raises more questions than it answers," commented Gabriella Domenzain, the Obama campaign’s director of Hispanic press. "Would he deport those who have received a deferment when the program expires after two years?"

Romney obviously is seeking the support of Latino voters in pivotal states such as Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. In Hawaii, as on the mainland, Latinos like Alex risk more than most. While only 10 percent of the Hawaii’s 40,000 undocumented residents are Mexican, they are disproportionately targeted for removal, according to UH associate professor Monisha Das Gupta.

Nonetheless, Romney’s statement in Denver raises hope that, at the very least, common sense will prevail in the presidential debates on immigration. Would that it prevail in the nation’s policies as well.