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WASHINGTON, DC -- Once the target of their protests, President Barack Obama huddled Tuesday with a handful of young immigrants to hear how much he's helped them and to reassure them he'd veto legislation to deport them.

The young immigrants who met with him had benefited from a 2012 action Obama took granting relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Beyond taking them off the deportation list, the action also allowed many young immigrants to work legally.

"He's a champion for us. He changed our lives for us completely. I'm forever going to look back years later and be like, 'President Obama changed my life completely.'" said Blanca Gamez who said she didn't participate in labeling the president "deporter in chief" last year when immigrant activists were pushing for executive action.

Gamez, of Las Vegas, holds a political science and English degree from University of Nevada and is pursuing a law degree. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Gamez said her sister is a U.S. citizen and so was able to sponsor her father for legal permanent residency.

Her mother is here illegally, but can now apply for DAPA under Obama's most recent executive action for parents of legal resident or U.S. citizen children.

The meeting served a dual purpose. It was timed to highlight the ongoing effort by Republicans in Congress to block the president's more recent executive action on immigration and to humanize the consequences.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has been keeping up some of that opposition.

"The president's unlawful amnesty provides work permits, Medicare, Social Security, and free tax credits to 5 million people illegally present in the United States - taking jobs and benefits directly from struggling Americans," he said.

Action Obama took late last year allows more young immigrants here illegally to apply, beginning Feb. 18, for three years of deportation relief and work permits. It also would allow parents of U.S. citizen and legal resident children to apply for similar benefits, known as DAPA.

But also Obama sought to highlight the youths' stories to ensure immigrants apply for the relief he's made possible, helping to build re-enforcements against Republican efforts to expel the 11 million immigrants now living in the U.S. illegally.

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Obama Assures Dreamers Deportation Relief Will Stick