Obama Promotes Immigration Action as Boehner Vows to Respond — The President says his order doesn’t go far enough, but Republicans beg to differ.
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama kicked off a campaign for his move to halt deportations for some undocumented immigrants as House Speaker John Boehner vowed Republicans will challenge his use of executive authority.
Returning to the Las Vegas school where two years ago he began a push for legislation on immigration, Obama said the steps he outlined last night to give a temporary reprieve to about 5 million people in the U.S. illegally don’t go far enough.
“Our immigration system has been broken for a very long time and everybody knows it,” Obama said at Del Sol High School, where about two-thirds of the students are Hispanic.
“We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country and places lives at risk.”
Obama’s action has reignited a long-simmering battle with Republicans over how to change the nation’s immigration laws to deal with the estimated 11.4 million people already in the country illegally. It also may frame the debate leading into the 2016 presidential campaign.
Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters in Washington today that making changes without congressional agreement “damages the presidency” and in doing so Obama “deliberately sabotaged” any chance of enacting the bipartisan immigration legislation.
“We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country and places lives at risk,” Boehner said without specifying what measures the House may take.
Obama critized the Republican leader, saying he had tried to persuade him to bring a Senate-passed immigration bill up in the House for a vote.
Passing Bill
“They can still pass a bill,” Obama said. “You don’t need me to call a vote to pass a bill. Pass a bill.”
Obama today on Air Force One signed two presidential memorandums, one to create task forces to look at how to integrate new Americans and another on finding better ways to allocate visas. The other steps will be carried out administratively and don’t require his signature.
Obama’s directive will defer for three years deportation for people who came to the U.S. as children and for parents of children who are citizens or legal permanent residents.
The Department of Homeland Security will streamline the visa process for foreign workers and their employers and give high-skilled workers a more flexible work authorization. DHS also will expand options for foreign entrepreneurs who meet criteria for creating jobs, and for graduates of U.S. universities in science and technology fields.
Needing Legislation
While Obama’s actions amount to the most sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration system in a generation, his actions don’t go as far as the legislation that passed the Senate last year and got stalled in the House. They won’t create an easier path to citizenship for those affected.
Obama doesn’t expect Congress to send him immigration legislation soon, though he still hopes there will eventually be a bill for him to sign, said Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House domestic policy council.
“He’s willing to have a bipartisan conversation that results in fixing the immigration system,” Munoz told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Nevada.
Obama spoke at Del Sol High School in January 2013, at the start of his second term, and delivered the same message at the start of another campaign to give the issue some momentum in Congress. He spoke the day after a bipartisan group of Senators introduced immigration legislation.
Democrats Attending
Underscoring the political implications, Obama traveled today to Las Vegas with a contingent of Democratic Congress members including House Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of California; Hispanic members of Congress and the Democratic members of the Nevada delegation. He also brought along supporters of his actions including Arturo Rodriguez, president of United Farm Workers, and Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League.
Part of the argument the administration is using to try to win over critics is economic. A White House Council of Economic Advisers analysis released today concluded the immigration changes would boost economic output by 0.4 to 0.9 percent over 10 years or add $90 billion to $210 billion to gross domestic product.
Obama is also trying to show he’s on solid legal ground for his actions, both by leaving out changes that the administration couldn’t justify and by pointing to precedent set by presidents including Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“This isn’t something I’m doing as if it’s never been done,” he said. “This kind of thing has been done before.”
A group of 10 law professors and constitutional lawyers including Columbia University President Lee Bollinger today released a letter saying they conclude Obama has legal standing for his executive actions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Las Vegas atagreilingkea@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow atskomarow1@bloomberg.net Joe Sobczyk, Michael Shepard