There are approximately one million lawful permanent residents and 700,000 foreign guest workers admitted to the U.S. each year. However, from 2009 to 2014, the Obama administration has issued more than 7.4 million work permits to foreign nationals:
In written responses to the Senate Judiciary Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee Republicans obtained by Breitbart News, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reveal that the Obama administration has been approving work authorizations for immigrants beyond admission limits and for some categories of immigrants that Congress never intended to work in the U.S.
Green card holders and foreign nationals on guest worker visas do not need work authorizations.
Beyond those limits each year, these new and renewed work permit approvals amounted to about 1.23 million in fiscal year 2009, 1.08 million in FY 2010, 970,277 in FY 2011, 1.24 million in FY 2012, 1.68 million in FY 2013 and 1.24 million in FY 2014.
Such categories of immigrants that received permits include: Illegal immigrants granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, immigrants granted Temporary Protective Status (TPS), spouses of guest workers, various types of foreign students, immigrants granted voluntary departure, parolees, as well as asylees and refugees.
Further, more than 113,800 individuals with final orders of deportation also were granted work permits in that six year span.
USCIS also provided a list revealing where in the country the extra work permits or EADs were issued each fiscal year, categorized by zip code:
The two zip codes with the greatest number of extra EADs in FY 2014 was in Flushing, NY (11355 and 11354) with 6,529 and 4,800 EADs. The zip code with the third most EADs in FY 2014 was Brooklyn, NY (11220) with 4,106 EADs. A zip code in San Gabriel, CA (91776) boasted the fourth most EADs at 3,803. And the zip code with the fifth most EADs was a zip code in Miami (33126) at 3,220.
You can see the entire list — and look up your own zip code — here.
Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, called the USCIS data proof that the Obama administration has been “abusing what should be considered very limited authority to issue work permits”:
She noted that while work permits have been intended to be a benefit for those who are applying for legal status or as a temporary benefit, the administration has issued them to people who are not eligible for legal status.
“Work permits have always been intended as a transitional benefit to assist someone that is in the process of applying for legal status, or as a temporary benefit. The administration has used them as a way to secretly give out benefits to huge numbers of people who are not eligible for a legal status,” she wrote in an email to Breitbart News. “They are using them to bypass the law and evade the rules set by Congress that limit the number of people who can take jobs here.
Vaughan urged that “Congress needs to take back control of the process without delay.”
