ISSUES: 2 of 2 Presidential Executive Order on Immigration
In an address to the nation Thursday night, President Obama added to the ever present controversy within immigration reform by declaring a temporary stay for some 5 million illegal immigrants....
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ISSUES: 2 of 2 Presidential Executive Order on Immigration - Video
By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton
WASHINGTON Fri Nov 21, 2014 11:35am EST
1 of 7. U.S. President Barack Obama announces executive actions on U.S. immigration policy during a nationally televised address from the White House in Washington, November 20, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama imposed the most sweeping immigration reform in a generation on Thursday, easing the threat of deportation for some 4.7 million undocumented immigrants and setting up a clash with Republicans who vow to fight his moves.
In a White House speech, Obama rejected Republican arguments that his decision to bypass Congress and take executive action was tantamount to amnesty for illegal immigrants.
It was his biggest use of executive actions in a year in which they have become his signature way of working around congressional gridlock.
"Amnesty is the immigration system we have today, millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules," he said.
Republicans pounced quickly, charging Obama had overstepped his constitutional powers a year after declaring he did not have the authority to act on his own.
In a video released before Obama's televised speech, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said: The president has said before that hes not king and hes not an emperor, but he sure is acting like one."
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Obama unveils U.S. immigration reform, setting up fight ...
As for the wider U.S. economy, experts said it is unlikely that Obama's executive actions will have a significant impact on employment or wages.
Citing the U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 that offered amnesty to about 2.7 million undocumented immigrants, Evercore concluded that research is mixed on employment-level changes (since many were already participating in the workforce), but that "most economists agree ... that new waves of immigration hurt previous immigrants."
"The literature is generally in agreement that the primary beneficiaries of legalization would be the eligible immigrants themselves, with the main benefit being an increase in earnings as workers formerly in the shadow labor market move to better, higher-paying jobs and earn greater returns on their educations," the Evercore note said.
Read More Boehner: House 'will in fact act' on immigration
And while the real economy may not change much, investors should also not expect to see major moves in closely followed statistics, according to research from JPMorgan.
"We believe it will be hard to discern any large effects on the data," wrote Michael Feroli, the firm's chief U.S. economist, adding that "we think the labor market data are largely immune to changes in the legal status of workers."
Even the government's cofferswhich would presumably benefit from more than 4 million expected new taxpayersmay not see a big bump from the president's actions. Many experts predict that about half of undocumented immigrants with jobs have false papers, so they are already paying taxes, said John Skrentny, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.
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Immigration reform's economic effect
President Barack Obama laid out his plan to overhaul the US immigration system in a Thursday night speech that will test the extent of his ability to use executive action.
Today, our immigration system is brokenand everybody knows it, Obama told Americans in a nationally televised address.
Obama laid out a broad three-point plan for immigration reform: providing border security with additional resources, making it easier and faster for high-skilled immigrants to stay and contribute to our economy and offering opportunities for some undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation.
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Under the plan, undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for five years or more, have children who are citizens or legal residents, formally register, pass a criminal background check, and are willing to pay their fair share of taxes will be able to stay in the country without fear of deportation, the President said.
Even as we focus on deporting criminals, the fact is, millions of immigrants...still live here illegally, Obama said, noting that deportations were up 80 percent over the past six years. And lets be honesttracking down, rounding up, and deporting millions of people isnt realistic. Anyone who suggests otherwise isnt being straight with you.
Obama also addressed critics of his proposals, flipping their charge that the White Houses plan would amount to amnesty for some undocumented immigrants.
I know some of the critics of this action call it amnestywell, its not, he said. 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. Thats the real amnestyleaving this broken system the way it is. Mass amnesty would be unfair, mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What Im describing is accountability.
The Associated Press previously reported, the rules could impact up to 5 million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants believed to be residing in the US. The crux of the White Houses plan is to protect undocumented parents of children born in the US from deportation.
Republicans have balked at Obamas decision to use executive action, which they criticized as an overreach of presidential powers.
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President Obama Announces Executive Action on Immigration Reform
Fresh off a victory in which they took control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the GOP suddenly finds itself in a jam.
The story of the moment is no longer President Obama's healthcare program, which Republicans have promised to blow up on the way to the presidency in 2016.
It's Obama's immigration reform plan, which he delivered Thursday night in a short speech, laying out the terms by which 5 million or so immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally will have temporary legal protection.
"We are in great shape," Eliseo Medina, an immigration reform activist for many years, said to me in an email.
"People now have proof positive that they can make change, and the GOP is in a box attack, and make their relations with Latinos worse, or do their own bill and tick off" the more conservative wing of the party by compromising.
When I wrote about Medina earlier this year and mentioned his 22-day fast in Washington, D.C., in 2013, he was optimistic that there'd be reform this year. I didn't share his enthusiasm, but he said Obama who visited him during the fast struck him as sincerely determined to get something done.
"I had discussed it with him so many times that I was convinced he was going to do it. The only question was how far he was willing/able to go and when."
The when is now.
Advocates didn't get the whole package they wanted, and the scramble to determine who is eligible for protection and to process applications could be chaotic for months to come.
But in making a first move toward change, Obama struck a blow to the duplicity and hypocrisy surrounding immigration law.
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Immigration reform: The when is now and it's long overdue