At the risk of furthering the gulf between himself and an already polarized Congress, President Obama stayed true to his word and announced several sweeping executive actions designed to protect more than five million immigrants currently living undocumented in the United States.
The announcements were delivered in a prime-time address from the halls of the White House East Room. In the address, Mr. Obama said he would defer the deportations of unauthorized immigrants who are the parents of United States citizens. He also promised to expand protections for children who entered the country illegally with their parents.
“I know some of the critics of this action call it amnesty,” said Mr. Obama. “Well, it’s not. Amnesty is the immigration system we have today -– millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time.”
President Obama also pledged to stem the tide of illegal border crossings by providing additional resources to law enforcement personnel, expediting the return of those who do cross over, as well as to make it easier for high-skilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to remain in the country.
Speaking rhetorically, Mr. Obama asked, “Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us? Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs here, create businesses here, create industries right here in America?”
Despite the President’s emotional appeals, congressional Republicans have responded unsympathetically to these orders, painting the President’s unilateral moves as a power grab.
A vexed John Boehner asserted that Obama’s application of his executive authority was misguided, going so far as to suggest it was, “damaging the presidency itself.” Moments before the speech, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma predicted a massive social fallout, telling USA Today that the country’s going to go nuts, because they’re going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it’s going to be a very serious situation, … You could see violence.”
“The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they’re the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every Democratic president for the past half-century,” Mr. Obama said. To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill.”
In New York, these directives come after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law two bills that drastically limit the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, ending a sustained era of frequent deportations for minor offenses.
“New York City firmly stands behind the President and is ready to do all that is in our power to help ensure the successful implementation of his plan,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement released Thursday night following Obama’s speech. “Now the Congress must continue what the President started – make lasting changes to widen criteria for more undocumented immigrants to qualify for legal status and act according to our society’s highest values.”
While support among immigration advocacy groups have been high-Cristina Jimenez, the managing director of United We Dream, called the announcement a “historic victory”-support among the public is scarce. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found a scant 38 percent of voters who support Mr. Obama’s executive actions, while 48 percent stated they disapproved of Mr. Obama’s actions.