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At the beginning of the summer, President Obama said that he was directing his administration to come up with steps that he could take as president to deal with immigration issues in light of the fact that the House of Representatives had made it clear that it would not be acting on either the bill that the Senate passed last year or any other bill before the midterm elections. Almost immediately, the presidents announcement was cited by many on the right as another sign of the executive overreach that they have accused him of for several years now, and which is also the basis for the lawsuit that the House of Representative recently authorized to be filed against him. More recently, some members of Congress, most especially Sen. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas, hinted that if the president took any such action prior to the midterms, then Republicans in Congress would be forced to consider shutting down the government over the issue. Indeed, Senator Cruz himself had threatened such a shutdown earlier this summer, although he and other Republicans have backed off of that talk in recent weeks and have asserted that all of the talk of shutdowns is coming from Democrats.

On the other side of the political aisle, the pressures on President Obama have been pulling him in different directions. On the one side are the groups that have been pushing for immigration reform for some time now, including organized labor, and are now pressing him to at least do something similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that he announced last year. On the other side, though, are party officials and, especially, vulnerable Democrats, who are concerned that executive action announced before the midterm elections would only serve to increase turnout from those opposed to immigration reform. While its unclear what the president is going to do, there have been several recent hints from the White House that we shouldnt expect any action any time soon:

The White House has signaled that President Obamas pledge to reform the nations immigration system could happen later than the end of the summer, a deadline it set earlier this year.

Obama has pledged to circumvent Congress and unilaterally overhaul immigration, and has said previously that he would do so by the end of the summer. But he and other White House officials began suggesting in recent days that any action may happen later than planned.

During a news conference Thursday, Obama suggested that a flood of Central American children at the southwestern border, which peaked in the spring and is now abating, has had an impact on the potential timing of his decision.

Some of these things do affect timelines, and were just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done, he said.

A White House official said the timing of any potential action on immigration could influence migrations to the border.

When asked about a timeline Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest did not mention the end-of-summer deadline, which officials have been touting for weeks. But he also declined to say whether Obama would delay decisions on immigration until later this fall or after the November midterms.

Thats putting the cart before the horse, Earnest said.

Earnest said Obama has not yet received final recommendations from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on how to address the immigration issue. The White House had previously said that those recommendations were to be given to Obama by the end of summer.

Original post:
White House may hold off on immigration action until after election