Thursday night
announcement set to be among most contentious of Obama’s presidency and puts
White House on collision course with Republicans
Barack Obama will use an
address to the nation on Thursday to unveil controversial plans to reform the
immigration system through executive action, a move that could shield as many
as five million undocumented migrants from the threat of deportation.
The
president will outline his long-anticipated plans during televised remarks,
shortly after 8pm ET, before traveling to a largely Hispanic high school in Las
Vegas on Friday where he will sign the action into force.
The
announcement will be among the boldest and most contentious moves of Obama’s
presidency. It places the White House on a collision course with Republicans,
who are pledging to use their new control over both houses of Congress to
thwart plans they argue are tantamount to an “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken,” Obama
said in a video posted
on Facebook on Wednesday in which he previewed his address.
“Unfortunately
Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long. And so what I’m
going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as
president to make the system work better even as I continue to work with
Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can
solve the entire problem.”
Late on Wednesday, Obama gave 18 congressional Democrats – all
of them sympathetic, pro-reform legislators – a preview of his plans during a
private dinner. They included leading Hispanic legislators such as Illinois
congressman Luis Gutiérrez who warned that Obama faced a
“civil war” in his Democratic party unless
he took bold executive action.
All of
the indications are that Obama plans to introduce the kind of far-reaching
changes that Gutiérrez and other Latino immigration reform advocates in his
party have been clamouring for.
White
House officials said Obama planned to use executive authorities to combine
increased resources for border security with a decree that significantly
expands the pool of undocumented migrants who are temporarily protected from
deportation and eligible for government work permits.
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