Barack Obama`s Republican rivals on Friday heaped scorn on his plans to offer up to five million undocumented migrants protection from deportation, as the US president went on the road to defend the bold measures.
The controversial overhaul provides three-year relief for millions of undocumented people who have lived in the country for more than five years and have children that are US citizens or legal residents.
According to the president, it also channels more resources to the US border with Mexico and shifts deportation priorities toward expelling felons.
But critics blasted the action as "illegal" and "unconstitutional" as soon as Obama unveiled Thursday night, bringing tensions with Republicans to a boil.
Already emboldened by their sweeping midterm election victory, Republicans vowed to thwart Obama`s plans.
"With this action the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms he claims to seek," House Speaker John Boehner declared Friday.
"We are working with our members and looking at the options that are available to us," he told reporters. "But I will say to you: the House will in fact act."
In a prime-time address, Obama said nearly a dozen commanders-in-chief before him have acted unilaterally over the past half century on some facet of immigration reform.
"There are actions I have the legal authority to take as president -- the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican presidents before me -- that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just,"
Obama said in his speech. (Daily Times)
Source: Republicans React To Obama's Immigration Reforms - eReporter
The controversial overhaul provides three-year relief for millions of undocumented people who have lived in the country for more than five years and have children that are US citizens or legal residents.
According to the president, it also channels more resources to the US border with Mexico and shifts deportation priorities toward expelling felons.
But critics blasted the action as "illegal" and "unconstitutional" as soon as Obama unveiled Thursday night, bringing tensions with Republicans to a boil.
Already emboldened by their sweeping midterm election victory, Republicans vowed to thwart Obama`s plans.
"With this action the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms he claims to seek," House Speaker John Boehner declared Friday.
"We are working with our members and looking at the options that are available to us," he told reporters. "But I will say to you: the House will in fact act."
In a prime-time address, Obama said nearly a dozen commanders-in-chief before him have acted unilaterally over the past half century on some facet of immigration reform.
"There are actions I have the legal authority to take as president -- the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican presidents before me -- that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just,"
Obama said in his speech. (Daily Times)
Source: Republicans React To Obama's Immigration Reforms - eReporter
