Obama to announce new immigration policies
A new report says that President Obama has plans to take unilateral executive action to help the millions of undocumented migrants in the United States, despite repeated Republican assertions that any such action would torpedo any chance of the president and the Republican-controlled Congress working together in the future.
The New York Times reports Obama may announce the plan as early as next week, and perhaps as much as a month later, but certainly before the start of 2015. The plan will protect five million people from deportation, and allow some undocumented individuals to receive work permits.
The plan is not reliant upon a new law, but instead upon the presidential power to direct certain government agencies, and establish their priorities. One part of the plan calls for the establishment of clear guidelines about who the government should seek to deport. Rather than anyone in the country illegally, which is the current practice, the new plan will call for a focus on recent border crossers, convicted criminals, and those who are threats to the United States. The Times says people who are eligible for work permits will be undocumented migrants whose children are U.S. citizens or legal residents. The eligibility for the permits will be based upon how long the person in question has resided in the United States. The White House is currently deciding whether people who have lived in the United States for the last five or ten years should be eligible. If the five-year guideline is used, 3.3 million people would be affect by the change, and if the 10-year level is set, then 2.5 million would be affected, according to the Times.
