Obama reportedly weighs cutting back on illegal immigrant deportations

President Obama is considering executive actions to reduce the number of illegal immigrant deportations, including issuing work permits to some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S., according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a White House official, reported that an announcement on any executive action is expected to take place soon after Labor Day. The paper also reported that the president began considering such an action after congressional Republicans said that they would not take up immigration reform during this session.

Obama has already exempted from deportation approximately 500,000 illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. The Journal reports that any new action could expand the protections to their parents or other illegal immigrants, such as those whose children have become U.S. citizens, who have been in the U.S. for a certain amount of time, or who have gainful employment.

The latest turn in the administration's immigration policy comes amid a surge of unaccompanied Central American minors arriving at the southern border. Obama has said that many of those children would likely be sent back to their countries of origin.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives unveiled a slimmed-down bill Tuesday that calls for National Guard troops to be sent to the southern border to aid the deportation of illegal immigrant children. A vote on the $659 million bill is scheduled for Thursday, and is certain to be rejected by the Democratic-run Senate.

But there was no guarantee House Speaker John Boehner would be able to count on enough support to pass the bill as he aimed for a vote Thursday.

Many conservatives remained skeptical, and Reid fomented those concerns by threatening to use the House bill as a vehicle to attach the Senate's comprehensive immigration overhaul bill, which the House has rejected.

Boehner responded angrily, accusing Reid of "making a deceitful and cynical attempt to derail the House's commonsense solution."

"So let me be as clear as I can be with Sen. Reid: The House of Representatives will not take up the Senate immigration reform bill or accept it back from the Senate in any fashion," Boehner said in a statement.

According to The Journal, the Obama administration is currently debating the extent of its legal authority to change deportation policy. Any such action could result in a legal challenge, and rumors of executive action have drawn condemnation from congressional Republicans.

"It would be an affront to the people of this country which they will never forgive, it would be a permanent stain on your presidency," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. said on the Senate floor Monday, while urging language to block such executive action be made part of any legislation to address the border crisis.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced plans to use an oversight hearing on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency Tuesday to raise questions about Obama's plans, which he warned could "worsen the border crisis and encourage many more to come."

On the other side, some Democrats have debated the best timing for Obama to take executive action, raising questions as to whether acting before the midterms could hurt vulnerable Senate Democrats in close races while boosting turnout among the GOP base.

But liberal advocates noted that Obama's move on deferred action two years ago gave him a boost heading into his re-election and could help this year with Latino voters discouraged over the failure of immigration reform legislation and record-high deportations on Obama's watch.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...-deportations/

" Is 20-some days considered 'soon'? Summer ends 9/23.

I don't think he'll wait so long after 9/1. My money is on September 5, 2014 since Congress is back in session September 8, 2014. And if I recall correctly, these announcements usually occur on a Friday.

I think he's trying to minimize the damage vulnerable Democrats are going to take while home campaigning. That way, members only have one big break at home with constituents (4 weeks off in October; as opposed to those 4 weeks, plus the August recess).

My concern at this point is how long is he going to give DHS to organize the application process. And I'm still puzzled as to why he would wait so long.

When DACA originally started, the main thing many voters wanted to hear was that the program was legitimate and that there were approvals coming back in an expedient matter. If he waits until September, I don't see anyone being able to file for relief before October. No way will there be approvals before Election Day. And at the end of the day, anything he does will be done in an effort to galvanize Latino voters, increase turnout, and minimize Congressional Democratic losses.

My work permit expires on 9/19 I hope he announces before

Exactly.

The delay in administrative action has done nothing but hurt the immigrant community; it's political game for WhiteHouse staffers apparently; when exactly are ppl going to benefit from this? This is being done on purpose to delay action, in effect, the president has used up this tactic of "White House and the President 'say' they WILL act (fill in bogus date)" only to discredit themselves by going back on their word a few days before said imaginary date. They did it in March, they did it in May, they've done it now in July.

Who wants to conduct a poll here to see how many believe the integrity of the White House's words that relief will happen in the soon-after-Labor-day imaginary date to be announced??

Oh, and I love all the reports out there of Cecilia Munoz, Valerie Jarrett and Dan Pfeiffer saying that no decision has been made. Anyone knows who exactly advised the president to delay action? Whoever it is, should be fired for continuing the status quo of indiscriminate deportations. Shame on you.

Why does that matter? You can already renew.

With you on that 100%. That's definitely a lie. President Obama, WH lawyers at the DOJ, and WH staffers have known since DACA was enacted what options were available to them. They simply wanted to use remaining immigrant groups left out of DACA as an available turn out strategy.

The only thing they've been honest about is the fact that we all thought CIR would have passed by now and our issues would be water under the bridge for them.

I've felt like a chess piece for a long time.

I think we should be expecting an announcement mid August. My money is on an August 15th - 20th announcement! Obama will be coming out with something huge. This is just super exciting.

I feel like this ping pong ball