President Obama to announce immigration plans Thursday
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- President Obama is expected to announce a major executive action on immigration reform Thursday evening. On Wednesday, he said he will lay out a plan to help fix what he calls our broken immigration system, and Republicans are pushing back.
President Obama already explained his immigration decision to senior lawmakers over dinner at the White House Wednesday night. What we are already hearing though is that the President is likely to temporarily grant work permits and exempt as many as 5 million undocumented people from deportation.
"Here at El Pueblo we work with Latino community members of all backgrounds and all immigration statuses," said Angeline Echeverria, the Executive Director of El Pueblo, Inc. in Raleigh. "So we have several families where maybe the children have status and the parents do not. We've had several families that have had to face deportations of a loved one and that always affects the people who stay behind."
Because of that, Echeverria said this upcoming announcement from President Obama is a long-time coming for many families. She believes those affected by Thursday's announcement could include parents of U.S. citizens, those related to people who received deferred action in 2012, or youth who did not get that deferred action.
"This step the President is going to take is going to help people to come out of the shadows, to not be scared when they're dropping their kids off at school, that they're risking deportation because they're driving without a license," said Echeverria.
The politics behind this though are not as optimistic. Republicans are questioning how the President is going about this. He's making this move without the green light from Congress.
"Many people see this as being antagonistic and kind of burning that bridge," said Andy Taylor, a political expert from N.C. State University.
Taylor also points out the timing of the announcement. It's coming just two weeks after mid-term elections and after Democrats lost control of the U.S. Senate, which is where a wide-ranging immigration reform bill passed last year. That bill was then stopped in its tracks when it hit the Republican-led House and there's next to no hope of it coming up again this session.
"We're now in a lame duck session of the Congress. It doesn't look like it would happen now in that lame duck session because they've got a lot of other things to do and not much time," said Taylor.
While Republicans are not happy, advocates are also wishing for a bit more.
"We would like to see a more comprehensive solution that actually puts people on a path to citizenship and doesn't keep them in limbo," said Echeverria.
What the President will likely order on Thursday will not be that all-inclusive reform package he hoped to pass through Congress, but advocates like Echeverria, say it is still a step in the right direction.
ABC11 reached out to Sen. Richard Burr's office for his take on how fellow Republicans feel about this move from the President.
His office released this statement: "Senator Burr does not support any executive orders by the President which will give amnesty to those here in violation of our laws, and believes any immigration policy changes need to be passed by Congress, not through executive action."
After Thursday's announcement, the President will then travel to a high school in Las Vegas on Friday to discuss why he's using his executive authority now and why Republicans in Congress must pass long-term immigration reform.
