Obama Sets Immigration Rollout For Tonight
From the Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama will lay out sweeping changes to the immigration system in a speech Thursday night, offering new protections to millions of people in the country illegally and sparking a bitter fight with Republicans.
The executive action is expected to shield as many as five million illegal immigrants from deportation and offer them a chance for work permits, while overhauling the enforcement system and boosting border security, people briefed on the plan said. It would represent the most significant changes to U.S. immigration policy in nearly three decades, though it would fall far short of the comprehensive legislation supporters have been trying to pass since the George W. Bush administration.
GOP reaction was swift and sharply negative, with Republicans saying the president is overstepping his authority, refusing to work with Congress and ignoring the will of voters, who this month delivered the GOP control of both houses of Congress. The White House cast the issue as an urgent policy priority.
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long,” Mr. Obama said in a video released on the White House’s Facebook page Wednesday afternoon. He said he would use his authority to “make the system work better.”
The moves, and the GOP response, will likely extinguish an already dim chance of legislative action on immigration. Republican leaders, buoyed by their Senate win and stronger hold on the House after the midterms, warned that cooperation on other matters would be more difficult, as well.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama will lay out sweeping changes to the immigration system in a speech Thursday night, offering new protections to millions of people in the country illegally and sparking a bitter fight with Republicans.
The executive action is expected to shield as many as five million illegal immigrants from deportation and offer them a chance for work permits, while overhauling the enforcement system and boosting border security, people briefed on the plan said. It would represent the most significant changes to U.S. immigration policy in nearly three decades, though it would fall far short of the comprehensive legislation supporters have been trying to pass since the George W. Bush administration.
GOP reaction was swift and sharply negative, with Republicans saying the president is overstepping his authority, refusing to work with Congress and ignoring the will of voters, who this month delivered the GOP control of both houses of Congress. The White House cast the issue as an urgent policy priority.
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long,” Mr. Obama said in a video released on the White House’s Facebook page Wednesday afternoon. He said he would use his authority to “make the system work better.”
The moves, and the GOP response, will likely extinguish an already dim chance of legislative action on immigration. Republican leaders, buoyed by their Senate win and stronger hold on the House after the midterms, warned that cooperation on other matters would be more difficult, as well.
Read more in our daily News Update...