President Orders Deferral of Deportation for Unauthorized Immigrants in Historic Change

President Obama used executive action to make historic changes to U.S. immigration policy that could enable as many as 5 million unauthorized immigrants to remain the United States legally for as long as three years.

Obama announced the immigration changes during a nationally-televised speech from the White House on Nov. 20, 2014.

The president said he was frustrated by the inability of the Congress to produce immigration legislation, despite a bipartisan vote by the U.S. Senate in June 2013 that overwhelmingly approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill he said he would gladly sign.


Republicans were furious over Obama's use of executive action, though he has used it less frequently than his recent predecessors. Also, President Reagan and President George Bush both used executive orders during their administrations to grant immigration benefits to millions.

It's important to recognize that Obama's executive orders do not change U.S. immigration law and can be overturned by future presidents. Also, many of the details of his plans were still in the development stage as of late 2014, so it's important for immigrants to stay engaged and stay tuned for announcement from government immigration officials.

Here's a look at the changes President Obama ordered:

• Relief from deportation for parents of U.S. citizens. As many as 4 million unauthorized immigrants who have U.S. citizen children can seek relief from deportation and “come out of the shadows.”
  The government won't start accepting applications for relief until 2015, but the Obama administration will instruct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officials to “immediately begin identifying persons in their custody” who are candidates for relief and stop deporting them.
  
  However, parents must have no criminal record and pay their taxes to benefit from Obama's order. These parents also must have lived in the United States for at least five years.
  
  Once they register with the government, the parents can work or attend school without fear of deportation.
  

• Expansion of relief for childhood arrivals. Obama has ordered the removal of the upper age limit of 30 years old for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program his administration started to give relieved to the so-called Dreamers who entered the country illegally as children.
  Now the program will cover anyone who arrived in the United States before 2010 and will extend the previous two-year guarantee of deportation relief to three years.
  
• Reducing the backlog of green cards and visas for high-skilled workers. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has promised steps to cut delays for immigrants with special talents but details and the timetable for changes were not released when Obama spoke to the nation.

The president said he still wants Congress to pass a comprehensive reform bill and will work with lawmakers to make that happen.

“I want to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution,” Obama said in his speech. “And the day I sign that bill into law, the actions I take will no longer be necessary.”

Obama quoted from the Bible and reminded Americans of their heritage as immigrants during his historic 10-minute speech.

“Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger – we were strangers once, too,” the president said.

“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

”That’s the country our parents and grandparents and generations before them built for us. That’s the tradition we must uphold. That’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.”