Millions expected to apply for US immigration protection

A flood of applications from illegal immigrants seeking temporary reprieve from deportation are expected from next week as the roll-out of President Barack Obama’s immigration actions begin.

In the face of strong opposition from Republicans in the US Congress, Mr Obama will next week expand the deferred deportation programme for immigrants brought illegally to the US as children.

A new deferred actions programme protecting illegal parents of US citizen children and legal residents will not begin until late May.

US media reported new details of the administration’s plans to roll out one of his most controversial programmes over the coming months.

In a move castigated by his opponents, the US president announced in November plans to shield up to five million illegal immigrants, mostly “undocumented” adults of legal residents and citizens, from deportation out of the estimated 11 million living in the US illegally.

For the first time, the cost of Mr Obama's plans was disclosed at between $324 million (€286 million) and $484 million over the next three years, according to a draft of a letter by the president's homeland security secretary Jen Johnson obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

The administration is extending a programme introduced in 2012 called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that allows migrants brought to the US as children, known as “Dreamers,” to stay legally if they were born after 1981 and arrived before 2007.

Mr Obama expanded this last year to include children who arrived before 2010, benefiting an estimated 270,000 more migrants. Applicants will be able to start applying for the programme from February 18th.

The administration is introducing another programme called the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) for illegal parents of US-born citizen children or legal permanent residents if they have lived in the US for five years and have no serious criminal record.

Four million immigrants, including, it is estimated, thousands of Irish, will benefit from this programme once it opens up in late May.

Concerns have been expressed about the strain that the deluge of millions of applications might have on the US immigration system.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services is projecting applications from about 1.3 million people in the first six months which will increase the workload of the agency that handles about 6.3 million other applications every year, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The fee for a DAPA application will be $465 and applications will be handled by mail at an office in a suburb of Washington DC with a staff of 1,000 government workers helped by 1,000 private contractors.

The immigration services expect about 1.9 million people to apply for the DAPA programme in the first 18 months.

The Department of Homeland Security has yet to clarify whether illegal adults will be able to return home outside of family emergencies or essential employment work under the DAPA programme.

Clarification is not expected to be made by the department until close to the launch of the programme in May. Many illegal Irish have not been able to travel home to Ireland for years because of their status.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted to block Mr Obama's programmes in their approval of a budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which monitors immigration services, but the Senate has refused to pass the measure.