Senate Democratic leaders pushed President Obama to act unilaterally on immigration policy, writing in a letter that he should halt deportations for millions of people who are now living here illegally but have “strong ties to the United States.”
The letter, signed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his deputies, also calls on the president to change border enforcement and immigration policy to be “more effective, humane and non-discriminatory.”
The letter blames the GOP for blocking immigration reform legislation passed in 2012 that would have coupled some border security improvements with increased immigration and a path to citizenship for many of those now living here illegally.
Democrats make the case that the president has the power to take executive action on immigration, citing past actions by Obama’s White House predecessors in both parties, stretching back to the Eisenhower administration.
“Some Republicans are claiming that you do not have the authority to act, but we know that you, like previous presidents, have broad executive authority to shape the enforcement and implementation of immigration laws,” Democrats wrote in the letter.
Democrats are under increasing pressure from immigration advocacy groups who want to stop deportations that break up families.
The president said he will act before the end of the year to make changes to immigration policies, and reports say he’ll stem deportations of up to 5 million illegals, in part by expanding to family members a program legalizing people who arrived here illegally as children.
“Perhaps the action most similar to what is needed today is the ‘Family Fairness’ policy implemented by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, which deferred the deportation of 1.5 million spouses and children of individuals who were legalized under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, representing 40 percent of the then undocumented population,” Democrats wrote to Obama.
