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Bowing to political concerns, President Obama will not announce any plans to take executive action to change immigration policy until after the November elections, despite promising in June he would act before the end of summer.

White House officials began informing lawmakers and advocacy groups of the decision, with calls going out late Friday and continuing into Saturday morning, according to several people familiar with the decision.

The decision comes just a few days after Obama hinted that he might delay a decision as he continues to call on Congress to take steps to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

Senate Democrats have warned that any bold executive action ran the risk of upending the chances of several Democratic incumbents running for reelection in southern states, where Obama is unpopular and the issue of immigration reform isn't as urgent. Republicans must win six seats to take control of the Senate.

In an interview set to air Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama defended his decision to wait.

"When I take executive action, I want to make sure that it's sustainable, Obama said in a clip from the interview released Saturday afternoon. "What I'm saying is that I'm going to act because it's the right thing for the country. But it's going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we've done on unaccompanied children [on the southern border], and why it's necessary."

A White House official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, also defended the decision. "The reality the president has had to weigh is that were in the midst of the political season and because of the Republicans extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections."

Republicans, who have vehemently denounced the president's plans to take executive action, quickly declared the delay a result of cold political calculation.

"There is a never a right time for the president to declare amnesty by executive action," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement, "but the decision to simply delay this deeply-controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election - instead of abandoning the idea altogether - smacks of raw politics."

The decision is likely to infuriate many Democrats who have said Obama taking executive action before the elections could embolden Democratic base voters to turn out in key elections. And it definitelywill infuriate members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who have been pressuring Obama to take action since he took office in 2009.

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Obama to delay executive action on immigration until after election