‘Bold and meaningful action’ expected next week from Obama on immigration

It took almost six years, but President Barack Obama may be close to coming through on his promise to the immigrant community and taking “bold and meaningful” steps in resolving the nation’s immigration enforcement system, as reported earlier today by The New York Times.

This comes after Wednesday’s (Nov. 13) letter from Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), two of the most vocal proponents for immigration reform, began circulating offering support for the president to use his executive authority to revamp the nation’s immigration laws. In the letter to President Obama, Lofgren and Gutierrez that they would stand with the president if he took “bold and meaningful action.”

[See Wednesday’s article and copy of the letter by clicking here.] 

The Thursday (Nov. 14) Times article states that the President “will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement system that will protect up to five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits, according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the plan.”

It states that “… Mr. Obama intends to order changes that will significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents. One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.

“That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington. But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.

“Extending protections 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.

“Mr. Obama’s actions will also expand opportunities for immigrants who have high-tech skills, shift extra security resources to the nation’s southern border, revamp a controversial immigration enforcement program called Secure Communities, and provide clearer guidance to the agencies that enforce immigration laws about who should be a low priority for deportation, especially those with strong family ties and no serious criminal history.

“A new enforcement memorandum, which will direct the actions of Border Patrol agents and judges at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement and judicial agencies, will make clear that deportations should still proceed for convicted criminals, foreigners who pose national security risks and recent border crossers, officials said.”