At an event Monday, the Mexican Consulate in San Diego committed to reach out to those who may be eligible for relief under President Barack Obama’s immigration reforms.
The President issued executive orders last week allowing immigrants who’ve lived in the United States for some time, have a clean criminal record and have U.S. citizen children to be protected from deportation. The new orders limiting deportation also allow qualified people to get work permits.
READ MORE: San Diegans React To Obama’s Immigration Orders
Remedios Gómez Arnau is the Mexican Consul General in San Diego. She says potential applicants have a lot of questions and the consulate wants to help with answers.
“We will be organizing workshops once we have the information of exactly what is required. We will be printing booklets. We will, of course, be working through our network of social organizations to provide these workshops in the different parts of San Diego County,” Arnau said.
One major concern is scammers trying to take advantage of the confusion. San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez said people are already reaching out to his office with questions. He said there are no answers yet, because the process for being included under the plan hasn’t been determined yet.
“I’ve already started to see that there are folks who are announcing, 'We can help you apply. We can help you fill out the application. Pay us a fee and we’ll take you through the paperwork,' Alvarez said. "I’m really concerned about that - that people are being duped into this idea that the process exists, that there is an application,” Alvarez said.
The Public Policy Institute of California says there are about 180,000 immigrants without the proper paperwork in San Diego County, but it is not clear how many of them are eligible for relief under the new rules.
