WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama sought to convince the American public Thursday that his plans to unilaterally change immigration laws were in line with the precedent set by previous administrations and did not amount to an amnesty program for immigrants.
In a prime-time address from the White House, Obama argued that a mass deportation of the more than 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally “would be both impossible and contrary to our character.”
Rather, the president said, his decision to defer deportations of 4 million immigrants is aimed at “actual threats to our security,” by allowing border control agents to focus on the highest-priority incursions, such as those by felons, gang members and recent border-crossers.
“Felons, not families,” Obama said of who would be in line for deportations. “Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids.”
Under Obama’s plan, immigrants in the country illegally whose children are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the country for at least five years can apply, starting in the spring, for relief from deportations for a period of three years. About 3.7 million immigrants are expected to qualify.
The president also is expanding a 2012 program that has provided administrative relief to nearly 600,000 young people brought to the country illegally as children. Officials said that expansion, which will remove an age cap, could reach an additional 287,000 people.
The president’s speech, which lasted 15 minutes, was an effort to build public support and head off staunch opposition from congressional Republicans, who have vowed to fight Obama’s use of executive actions to circumvent the legislative branch after an effort to pass a comprehensive immigration bill failed in 2013.
Even before Obama took to the airwaves, GOP leaders were deliberating over how to stop him. Republicans in both chambers debated filing a lawsuit over the president’s use of executive authority, pursuing their own legislation on immigration policy or removing funding for federal immigration agencies.
“By ignoring the will of the American people, President Obama has cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, after Obama’s address. “Republicans are left with the serious responsibility of upholding our oath of office. We will not shrink from this duty, because our allegiance lies with the American people. We will listen to them, work with our members and protect the Constitution.”
White House lawyers expressed confidence that Obama has the legal standing to enact the changes. They cited previous executive actions taken by Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, both of whom signed orders protecting smaller groups of immigrants from deportation.
White House officials released statistics showing that Bush’s order protected about the same percentage of immigrants that Obama’s action is projected to protect, though far fewer in raw number because there were only 3.5 million immigrants living in the country illegally in the early 1990s.
Asked about a potential Republican lawsuit, a senior administration official said, “Anyone with a filing fee can sue; there’s nothing we can do about that.”
The official added that administration lawyers think Obama’s actions “are absolutely supported by the law.”
Obama portrayed his approach as a “common-sense, middle-ground approach” that will allow otherwise law-abiding immigrants to “come out of the shadows and get right with the law.”
Addressing the chief criticism of Republicans — that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are being rewarded for violating the law — Obama declared that his policy is not amnesty. He said many of the immigrants in the country illegally “are as American as Malia or Sasha,” a reference to his daughters.
“Amnesty is the immigration system we have today — millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules, while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time,” Obama said. “That’s the real amnesty — leaving this broken system the way it is.”
The plan to offer immigrants who qualify for Obama’s executive action plan three years of relief would mean that the newly processed applicants would be protected from deportations through the first year of Obama’s successor in 2017. That would leave it up to the new administration to determine whether to continue the program or abruptly eliminate it.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, meanwhile, will issue new guidelines for immigration agencies detailing the priorities for removal.
The Obama administration has deported nearly 400,000 immigrants each year and has sought to prioritize felons, terrorists and other high-priority targets who pose a threat to national security. But field agents have complained that the guidelines are difficult to understand, and they have been accused by immigrants rights advocates of failing to follow them.
Obama’s executive actions
• Protect from deportation and make eligible for work permits about 4.1 million people who are in the U.S. illegally but whose children are citizens or lawful permanent residents, regardless of whether the children are minors. To be eligible, the parents must have lived in the U.S. for five years. After passing background checks and paying fees, parents would be granted relief from deportation for three years at a time.
• Expand the program that shields from deportation minors who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Obama will extend the program to minors who arrived before 2010, instead of the current cutoff of 2007, and lift the requirement that applicants be under 31 to be eligible. About 250,000 people could be affected.
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Emphasize deportation for recent arrivals, criminals and national security threats.
• A new program called the “Priority Enforcement Program” will set up priority levels based on the conduct for which immigrants are detained.
• Commit more resources for enforcement efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Increase salaries for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who will play a larger role in law enforcement, to bring them in line with other policing agencies.
• Make other immigration changes sought by businesses, such as a parole-in-place program that could affect another several hundred thousand people.
• Loosen eligibility requirements for a waiver program for people seeking green cards. The Associated Press
