President Barack Obama has bypassed Congress on immigration reform, saying the country can no longer wait to fix a broken system.
The president unveiled his plan during a televised primetime address, in which he outlined a plan to temporarily protect as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, allowing parents whose children are U.S. citizens or in the U.S. legally to qualify for work permits.
"What I’m describing is accountability — a common-sense, middle-ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported," he said. "If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up."
Many Republicans have expressed outrage over Obama's decision to use an executive order to put forth his plan, instead of the usual congressional legislative process.
Republicans have also described the shielding of illegal immigrants from deportation as an act of granting amnesty to criminals.
Obama acknowledged that criticism directly. "Leaving this broken system the way it is" ... "that's the real amnesty," he said. He then called mass amnesty "unfair" and "mass deportation ... both impossible and contrary to our character."
Obama has waited more than a year for House Republican leaders to put an immigration reform plan to a vote after the Democrat-controlled Senate passed one. Despite disagreements on how to resolve the immigration problem, the glut of unaccompanied children on the Texas border earlier this year convinced Americans that the issue no longer can wait, a point Obama emphasized in his message.
Officials say the president is acting legally and that he is still willing to work with Congress.
Many Hispanics are welcoming the announcement by Obama. In Los Angeles, many immigrants gathered to watch the televised announcement.
Twenty-three-year-old Diana Ramos, who was born in Mexico, says the action will help her parents, who are undocumented, but have children who are U.S. citizens. That qualifies them for relief under the plan.
“This brings a lot of hope for my family that we won’t have to live with fear any more,” she said.
Pilar Galvez, a U.S. citizen born in El Salvador, said the move will help many who have entered the United States from her native country.
“I am happy that Obama is doing this for families that are working hard to bring better [things] for their families to and bring better [things] to the United States,” said Galvez.
In Houston, Texas, another state with a large Hispanic population, Jesus Mejia, a Guatemalan immigrant, is pleased with the president.
He said it is something good, that it is human to understand the situation of an immigrant who came to the United States out of necessity.
But Teresa, a U.S. citizen who came from Ecuador, wonders if the president is delaying lasting reform by not working with Congress.
She said both should be in agreement to produce a plan that will benefit many people. She also worries about undocumented migrants with criminal backgrounds staying in the country.
Xiomara Corpeno of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles called the president’s action an important step, but said a lasting solution must do more.
“We know that it has to be bipartisan. The Republicans just need to wake up and realize that if they want to include everyone in this country, they need to pass immigration reform,” said Corpeno.
Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, soon to be Senate majority leader, says his party will consider a number of options to thwart the president. Some Republicans are threatening another government shutdown, while others want to ban funding for Obama's immigration plan.
McConnell also said the president's plan was aimed at securing his political legacy.
"The action he's proposed would ignore the law, would reject the voice of the voters and would impose new unfairness on law-abiding immigrants, all without solving the problem," McConnell said.
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Obama's plan goes far beyond similar action taken by former president George H.W. Bush.
"This is millions of people. It’s a hundred times larger than a similar thing that advocates are pointing to that the first President Bush did," said Krikorian.
Some analysts, such as Klaus Larres, professor of international relations at the University of North Carolina, say the Republican threat will remain rhetorical.