President Barack Obama will delay tackling immigration issues until after the congressional elections in November, two anonymous White House officials told the Associated Press. Obama had previously pledged to assuage immigration woes with executive action by the end of the summer, but at this point has no specific timeline for a plan.
Obama reportedly made his decision on Friday after returning from a NATO summit in Wales, United Kingdom, but has not formally announced his plan to delay action yet. While aboard Air Force One on Friday, the President reportedly informed several allies of his decision and on Saturday, called several others from the White House.
Officials said that Obama is delaying action because sidestepping Congress to make a decision could jeopardize future efforts in passing a larger overhaul and could politicize the hotly contested issue even further, according to AP. The President’s advisers are unsure whether taking action would affect the outcome of the impending November elections.
“I want to be very clear: My intention is, in the absence of...action by Congress, I’m going to do what I can do within the legal constraints of my office, because it’s the right thing to do for the country,” Obama told reporters at the end of the NATO summit on Friday.
But the President's delay in action is not exactly well-received. USA Today reports that DREAM Action Coalition's Cesar Vargas called Obama out on "word games" and told urged him to act, as it might encourage voters in the elections. "It's not a big deal if Democrats side with political survival, but they are accepting bad politics by delaying immigration," he told the paper. "This year's races will be won by small margins. Why not energize a base, including the deciding base, that will help you win by showing voters unwavering leadership that stands up to extremism and obstruction?"
Immigration advocacy groups have been putting pressure on Obama to take swift action to address the border crisis, while Democrats have been advocating for delayed action, as executive action could fuel conservatives’ discontent against “vulnerable” Senate Democrats, including Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu and Arkansas’ Mark Pryor. Advocacy groups are holding Obama to his promise of addressing immigration by the end of the summer and penned an appeal to the President on Friday.
Obama allowed Homeland Security to distribute work permits and defer deportations for immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children. Since 2012, the program has allowed 580,000 immigrants to stay and not be deported. Advocacy groups claim that the President can allow the same deportation deferral to many of the immigrants who are already in the country.
Obama had agreed to “adopt recommendations without further delay” given to him by Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. He requested $3.7 billion this year to address immigration and the issue of unaccompanied minors crossing the Mexican border into the United States. Fewer attempts have been made to cross the border in the past few months.
Last year, the largely Democratic Senate passed a measure that increased security at the border but also enabled immigrants already in the United States to potentially become citizens by granting more visas. Yet the House, dominated by Conservatives, only granted Obama a minor portion of the requested funds and made it possible to deport young immigrants at the border. House Speaker John Boehner said that the House would not take any broad action towards addressing immigration this year, prompting the President to make an executive decision.
Obama has said that his plans include expediting legal immigration efforts, boosting security at the border and grant immigrants who have illegally resided in the United States easier access to citizenship, paying taxes and learning English, after they have paid a fine.
The border crisis is indicative of a much larger conflict of illegal immigration. An estimated eleven million immigrants have illegally immigrated into the United States or have not renewed their visas.
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