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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesSome Illegal Aliens File for Legal Status in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Some Illegal Aliens File for Legal Status in the U.S. Virgin Islands

There are more of a certain class of illegal aliens in the U.S. Virgin Islands than there are in Alaska, North Dakota, Maine, Montana or Guam, according to recently issued federal statistics.

The category is of aliens under the age of 31 who came to the United States illegally while under the age of 16; they have – regardless of the pending legislation in the Congress – the right to apply for legal status under an administrative ruling issued by the White House last year.

They are eligible for an amnesty program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This allows them to stay in the U.S. in legal status, to cross our borders at will, and, mostly important for many of them, to work legally. It is a continuing, temporary status and does not, at least not yet, put them on a path to citizenship.

The Department of Homeland Security recently published state-and-territory statistics on applications for DACA status, showing 53 applications filed through the end of March by aliens in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Though no state-specific data were published on approvals, DHS has been accepting 99. percent or so of all applications, so all 53 are pretty sure to obtain legal status.

Nationally, close to a half million aliens have applied for this program, with about half of them being in California, Texas, and New York. Most of the applicants are from Mexico, but there are people from all over the world in the applicant pool.

The U.S.V.I. had 53 applicants, Alaska had 52, North Dakota 27, Maine and Montana 24 each, and Guam, 13. All the states with fewer applications than the V.I. have a border with Canada, suggesting that illegal aliens tend to move to the warmer parts of the US.

Currently pending in Congress is a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which was recently voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It would grant, among other things, legal status to some ten million currently illegal aliens, or about 20 times as many people as have applied to DACA.

Were that 20-to-1 ratio to hold true for the Virgin Islands it would mean the pending legislation would permit the legalization of more than 1,000 aliens in the U.S.V.I.

The full print-out of the DACA statistics can be seen here.

David North, a former Department of the Interior official who writes for the Source from time to time, is with Washington’s Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank.

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