President Barack Obama announces that his administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives, Friday, June 15, 2012, during a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Rhode Island leaders applaud Obama on immigration change

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Posted: 6/15/2012 4:04:15 PM
Updated: 6/15/2012 4:09:27 PM

Rhode Island political leaders are supporting President Obama's change in immigration policy, enabling young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States without fear of deportation.

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would stop deportations, and begin giving work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, and have since led law-abiding lives.

"Protecting kids... who have done everything right, gone to school, served in the military, done all the things we've expected of them as the criteria requires is a teriffic idea, and I applaud the President's decision," said Congressman David Cicilline.

"Anything we can do to help youngsters get into higher education is in our long-term best interest as a country," said Governor Lincoln Chafee, who last year changed state policy to enable undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates to attend state colleges and the University of Rhode Island, and whose first act as governor was to recind an executive order cracking down on illegal immigrants.

(Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)

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