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January 4, 2013

New U.S. Immigration Rules to Ease Separation of Families 
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The Obama administration has unveiled new rules allowing undocumented
immigrants to avoid lengthy separations from U.S. family members while
applying for legal status. Current U.S. policy forces immigrants who
entered the country without authorization to return to their native
countries for visas, then bars them from re-entering the United States
for as long as a decade. Starting in March, family members who can
demonstrate "extreme hardship" if separated from U.S. family members may
be eligible for a waiver allowing them to re-enter the country more
quickly. The new policy could potentially spare hundreds of thousands of
families from being kept apart.

 

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