$7.8 million a year lease building sitting mostly unused.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Since a federal judge first blocked President Barack Obama’s sweeping  new immigration reforms in February, the Department of Homeland Security has suspended plans to hire up to 3,100 new employees, most of whom would be housed in an 11-story building the government has leased for $7.8 million a year in Arlington, Virginia.
That building, in the Crystal City area, is now sitting mostly unused, DHS employees informed The Washington Post.
Obama announced in November 2014 that up to 5 million illegal immigrants would be eligible to be shielded from deportation — including undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents — as long as they met certain criteria.
However, after 26 states sued the administration, accusing the moves of being unconstitutional, a federal judge in Texas put them on hold back in February until the case is resolved. A federal appeals court recently upheld that injunction, and The Post cited legal observers who are now saying the legal battle could protract until late in Obama’s term.
“We are being as aggressive as we can” in the court case, Obama said, per NBC News. But he added that he decided against accepting applications from immigrants who might be eligible because he didn’t want people to apply and “jump through a lot of hoops” only to have the deportation deferrals held up by bipartisanship yet again.
Meanwhile, President Obama said Monday that he expects immigration to be a major issue in the 2016 election, reported NBC News.
“I suspect it will be a major topic of the next presidential campaign,” Obama stated after the G-7 summit in Germany.
Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, told NBC News in an interview that immigration will go beyond the presidential election as a campaign topic. He said he suspects it will also be a factor at the local, state, and congressional levels.
“I have never seen a campaign start this early with this issue being so up front,” Monterroso said.