An internal memo prepared for the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it is possible to provide green cards or delay deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are now living and working in the United States without papers or permanent residence.

The recent memo to USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas, released in Washington late Thursday, said one group that could receive green cards are the almost 400,000 current holders of Temporary Protected Status who include Salvadorans, Haitians, Hondurans and Nicaraguans.

The memo says young students who could qualify for green cards under pending legislation known as the DREAM Act could be granted deferred action, an immigration measure that delays deportation.

Another option for potential DREAM Act beneficiaries, the memo says, would be to ``move forward'' to 1996 -- or another date -- the registry provision of immigration law that makes eligible for green cards undocumented immigrants present in the United States since before Jan. 1, 1972.

The memo is the first formal indication that officials within the Obama administration are seriously discussing the possibility of helping certain categories of undocumented immigrants achieve permanent residence -- absent immigration reform.

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