ImmigrationObama’s executive order will shield 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation

In the face of bitter protests from Republicans in Congress, President Obama will soon announce that he will be using executive orders to launch a broad overhaul of the U.S. immigration enforcement system. One of the immediate results of the overhaul would be to shield up to five million undocumented immigrants – nearly half of the estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States — from the threat of deportation. The president’s orders will also provide many of these undocumented immigrants with work permits.

While the president was finalizing the details of next week’s executive order, 116 Democratic members of the House yesterday (Thursday) sent a letter to Obama, saying that it was clear Republican leaders would not pass legislation to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

“By failing to do their job — and repeatedly interfering with your efforts to do your job — congressional Republicans threaten to take our immigration system hostage and preserve a status quo that everyone agrees is unacceptable,” the letter said.

“Their failure to act must not inhibit your commitment to governing.”

Administration officials familiar with the White House plans told the New York Times that one important element of the order will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents so they no longer have to worry about being discovered, separated from their families, and deported. An analysis by the Migration Policy Institute said that this part of Obama’s plan could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years. The administration is considering a stricter benefit policy which would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least ten years, or about 2.5 million people.

The Times notes that extending protection from deportation to more undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and to their parents, could affect an additional one million or more if they are included in the final plan that the president announces.

Obama’s order will also expand opportunities for immigrants who have high-tech skills, allocate additional security resources to protect the U.S.-Mexico border, make changes to the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, and provide clearer guidelines to the agencies which enforce immigration laws regarding prioritizing apprehension and deportation of undocumented immigrants – with undocumented immigrants who have strong family ties and no serious criminal history being low priority.

At the same time, the White House will instruct the Border Patrol agents and judges at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and other federal law enforcement and judicial agencies that deportations should proceed for convicted criminals, foreigners who pose national security risks, and recent border crossers.

Administration insiders noted that most of the major elements of the president’s plan are based on longstanding and not especially controversial legal practice which gives the executive branch the right to exercise “prosecutorial discretion” in how to enforce the laws. This was the basis of a 2012 decision to protect from deportation the so-called Dreamers, who came to the United States as young children. The 

new announcement will be based on a similar legal theory, officials said.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee agreed with this approach.

“After the president exercises his broad authority to defer removals, we will hear complaints that he acted outside the law,” said representative John Conyers (D-Michigan), a senior member of the judiciary committee, told the Guardian. “But like those before him, president Obama’s legal authority to act derives from the constitution and the immigration and nationality act itself. The only path forward at this time is through executive action.”

Republican leaders in Congress have warned that an executive order to overhaul immigration on such a scale would make it more difficult for Republicans to cooperate with the president on other issues once they take over the Senate in January.

White House sources told the Times, however, that the president and his top aides have concluded that after three years of inaction in Congress – the Senate has approved a bi-partisan immigration reform, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would not bring it to a vote in the House — the only way to increase political pressure on Republicans would be to use executive order (note the Republicans in the House have been willing to vote on smaller, incremental immigration reform measures).

The Times reports that Obama has told lawmakers privately and publicly that he will reverse his executive orders if Congress passes a comprehensive bill which he could sign.