Extra work at Yakima Schools due to US immigration program

United States, 8th October: A recent US immigration program has resulted in increased paper work at Yakima schools.

US President Barack Obama’s latest scheme to offer deferred deportation to young and undocumented immigrants living in the US led to increased number of school record requests.

Schools overwhelmed with requests for school records, transcripts—The program announced by President Obama becoming effective from 15th August this year has left Yakima School officials baffled and overworked.

Every week, most of Yakima valley schools are receiving huge number of requests and transcripts for school records, admits registrar and counseling secretary for Grandview High School, Rachel Romero. Since August, total number of requests received by the school are said to be 265.

And among these, majority are from immigrant children applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, says Romero.

To handle the increased number of requests for records, Registrar Shiela Miller says a special conference table has been taken over to allow 20 people to process the requests.

US Deferred Action program--US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals offers immigrants aged 30 and below to get a two-year reprieve from US deportation. However, to be eligible, they need to have come to the US before attaining 16 years of age, must be US high school graduates, enrolled in any US college or served in military, living in the US since the year 2007 and must have a clean record of crimes.

Throughout the US, nearly 82,000 went ahead to apply for the US deferred deportation program till 13th September.

As per officials of US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) say months might be taken in completing background and paperwork checks. So, far, just 29 had got approval.

US deferred deportation program popular in Yakima—Due to high percentage of workforce in Yakima being undocumented immigrants involved in agricultural work, US Deferred Deportation program is very popular here. As a result, rush for records is maximum here.

And waiting lists in school districts for school records are quite long from one week to one month or a bit longer. It is also becoming a cause of concern for many wanting to continue their college studies as they are unlikely to get their school records in time for meeting their lawyers.