The Mexican American Coalition Applauds Obama’s Proposed Immigration Rule Change

For immediate release

Washington, D.C. 01/06/12- The Mexican American Coalition (MXAC) is calling today’s announcement of an immigration rule change by the Obama administration an important modification that could potentially keep thousands of Latino families together.  The proposed rule change will allow the undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for a provisional waiver while in the U.S.  Previously, spouses and children were forced to leave the U.S. during the application process, triggering a 3-year or 10-year bar from re-entry. A waiver would be applied for, which often took over a year to approve, separating families for long months. With the rule change, spouses and children of US citizens can wait in the US for waiver approval, and then must leave the country to complete the process at a US consulate.

“We applaud the Obama administration for taking the necessary step to correct this broken part of the immigration process,” says Teodoro Maus, MXAC South East Vice-president based in Atlanta, GA. “Family unity is the foundation of our community and this is a significant change that will help stem the tide of family separations caused by our broken immigration policies.”

The rule change does not signify a change in the law, nor does it apply to legal permanent residents applying for a spouse of child. “There is much more that can be done, and this is not a substitute for immigration reform, which president Obama promised to the Latino community,” said Luis Avila, MXAC Board Member based in Arizona, “but we applaud president Obama for taking this step because there is no question that it will provide much-needed relief to some Latino families,” he added.

For more information, please visit www.mxac.org  – Follow us in Twitter @mxac

To see PDF file, please click here: For immediate release-Immigration waiver

This post is also available in: Spanish