Immigration Reform: Obama To Announce 10-Point Plan, Congress Not Needed

An anonymous source close to the White House told Fox News that President Obama will unveil a 10-point immigration plan on November 21st. The president will be bypassing Congress and implement his plan through executive orders. The new policy will contain 10 points, the most controversial of which might be a “deferred action” for certain undocumented immigrants. Nevertheless, President Obama is completely denying the leak and any immigration plan.

According to Fox News estimates, the Obama plan would allow 4.5 million undocumented immigrants a deferred status, preventing their deportation. The status would apply to people who came to the U.S. as children and to the parents of U.S.-born children. The provision might be directed at the surge of child immigrants that have recently come to the U.S. from violent Central American countries.

The 10-point plan will also aim to strengthen border protection by offering better pay to immigration officers and improving security.

Fox News didn’t elaborate on the full 10 points, leaving the ball in the Obama’s court to completely explain the policy, if it exists at all.

White House spokesman Shawn Turner has already responded to the report.

“The president has still not made a decision regarding exactly when he’ll make an announcement about executive action to fix our broken immigration system, but he remains committed to taking action before the end of the year.”

According to Fox News, Obama received a briefing from Homeland Security officials just before leaving for the APEC summit, but the White House denies that as well.

Still, unveiling a potentially controversial plan now, after the mid-term elections, might be politically advantageous. Obama’s actions can no longer hurt Democrats running for re-election. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, there was also wide-spread speculation that the decision to send 1,500 more advisers to Iraq was delayed for political reasons.

Nevertheless, President Obama is still sure to receive a rebuke from the newly empowered Republican party members. As Reuters reported, Senate Republican John Barrasso said in an interview that a immigration plan implemented with unilateral executive orders would be a “toxic decision.”

Whether or not he already made a decision, the president still intends to use executive orders for immigration policy at some point. As Haaretz reports, President Obama told Congressional leaders he would ease some immigration restrictions through executive orders, since they have still failed to pass a comprehensive reform bill.

Since Congress doesn’t appear ready to cooperate on immigration, it’s just a question of when Obama will unveil his own plan.

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