Five million spared deportation
Immigration changes sure to provoke showdown with Republicans
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama is ordering farreaching changes to the country’s immigration system that will protect nearly five million people from deportation, testing the limits of his presidential powers and inviting a showdown with newly emboldened Republicans.
Obama sought to break a stalemate in a long-simmering debate over immigration by cutting out Congress, confronting Republicans who swept congressional elections earlier this month and ensuring that the contentious debate will carry on into the 2016 presidential campaign.
In a televised address on Thursday night, Obama described the most sweeping changes to fractured immigration laws in nearly three decades, saying his executive actions were a “common-sense” plan consistent with what previous presidents of both parties had done.
Immigrants living illegally in the U.S. would be saved from deportation by receiving work permits; millions more would remain in limbo.
“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,” Obama said.
Republicans, who take full control of Congress in January after capturing the Senate from Democrats, warned that Obama would face consequences for what they described as an unconstitutional power grab.
“The president will come to regret the chapter history writes if he does move forward,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican who is soon to become the Senate majority leader, said before Obama’s speech. Republicans were united in opposing his move but divided on how to respond.
Lawmakers have raised options including lawsuits, a government shutdown and even impeachment.
Party leaders are seeking to avoid a government shutdown, saying such moves could backfire and anger voters ahead of the next presidential election in two years.
Republicans are in a bind over immigration: the U.S. electorate is rapidly becoming more diverse, especially more Hispanic.
Republican leaders have said the party risks its long-term future if it does not act to solve immigration problems.
But many in the party’s conservative base oppose any reform that includes a path to citizenship for those who enter the country illegally.
The White House says the president is exercising his executive authority to tackle immigration reform unilaterally, as Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush did before him.