President Obama rolls out executive plan on immigration

On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced a contentious series of executive actions to allow nearly five million immigrants to live in the U.S. legally.

Obama outlined a plan that will temporarily allow immigrants who are currently living in the U.S. illegally and meet certain criteria to apply for a three-year permit if they pass a background check and are willing to pay taxes.

The immigrants that qualify for this permit would have to have children who are born in the U.S. or are citizens. Obama’s action also applies to children who have been in the country for more than five years, which is an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known as DACA.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement that Obama’s actions came after what he called the House Republicans’ reluctance to drop their opposition to immigration reform.

“They’ve also refused to indicate any sort of willingness to bring up immigration reform legislation,” Earnest said. “The president has decided it’s time to move forward.”

According to Politico, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said the newly Republican Senate will take forceful action against Obama’s move, but he didn’t say exactly what that action would be.

“We’re considering a variety of options,” McConnell said. “But make no mistake, when the newly elected representatives of the people take their seats, they will act.”

Earnest said Obama’s actions are consistent with executive actions take by both parties’ presidents in the past.

Christopher Schroeder, a Duke University law professor, said Obama’s decision was lawful.

“Immigration laws give the executive branch much discretion to decide enforcement priorities, which is what the president is doing here by simply saying there are some individuals who are here who are undocumented who we are not going to prioritize, and we’re going to go after the kinds of people we want to remove,” Schroeder said.

The law professor said this kind of executive action has been used multiple times before.

Still, Dani Moore, director of the N.C. Justice Center’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said Obama’s executive actions don’t go far enough and don’t include enough immigrants.

“It’s an important step forward, but it falls short of offering relief to all immigrants in our state who deserve a path to legalization and eventual citizenship,” Moore said.

In North Carolina, 114,000 undocumented people live with children who are legally U.S. citizens, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. If these immigrants were granted the three-year permit, the state could see a $184 million increase in tax revenues over the next five years.

Emilio Vicente, a UNC senior who is also an undocumented immigrant, said the action doesn’t do enough because it covers less than half of the immigrants in the country.

“I’m happy for the families who are positively effected, but there’s still more work to do,” he said.

Vicente said some family members are impacted by Obama’s decision.

“I’m happy it’ll give them relief and peace of mind,” he said.

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