The white house on thursday, he unveiled the specifics of his action plan. First, well build on our progress at the border with Additional Resources for our Law Enforcement personnel so that they can stem the flow of illegal crossings and speed the return of those who do cross over. Second, ill make it easier and faster for highskilled immigrants, graduates and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy as so many Business Leaders have proposed. Third, well take steps to deal responsibly with the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in our country. The president followed that up with a second speech on friday in las vegas promoting his executive action to the public. For years we havent done much about it. Well, today were doing something about it. If you have children who are american citizens or legal residents, if you register, you pass a background check, you are willing to pay your fair share of taxes, then youre going to be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows, get right with the law. To help us understand the specifics and significance of president obamas proposed executive action, a special lie za special lie zags and this is supposed to be a temporary fix for a broken system. But exactly what is it that is broken in the system . Well, the president is right when he described the system in terms of its hypocrisy and cruelty. It doesnt match what is happening on the ground and who is coming to this country and why they want to stay. Instead, we force people to live and work in the shadows. They come here, they are exploited by workers because they dont have employers employers because they dont have Work Authorization and they are not able to stay with their family members when they are here. So its a very broken system and the president s plan, while its a mixed bag, does help millions of American Families who are at risk of losing a loved one to deportation. Thats exactly where i want to go. Lets listen for a moment to the president outlining who this executive action is meant to help. If youve been in america for more than five year,s, if you have children who are legal citizens, if you pass a background check and are willing to pay your fair share of taxes, youll be able to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. Theres five categories. Lets walk through them. If youve been in america for more than five years. Is that everyone whos been in america for more than five years . How do you prove when you came . What does that mean exactly . So its really focused on people who either came here when they were very young and have grown up here or parents of lawful permanent residents and u. S. Citizen children. So there are millions of people who have been here who are not going to benefit even if theyve been here for a long period of time. When it says, if you have children who are american citizens or legal residents, is this only bio kids, if you are the biological parent . What if you are the step parent . Familiar he looks are complicated. And Immigration Law is complicated. A lot of these issues have come up in the past and there are precedence. We will find families who seem to fit into the criteria but wont be able to benefit. I can only imagine that that becomes extraordinarily complicated. If you register, what is registration going to entail . Its going to be similar to the program that the president has announced previously, a deferred action for childhood arrivals. There will be an application process. Youll have to submit that information with a fee and then youll have to undergo background checks. Its a rigorous process and it takes a long period of time and well see period have to go through that. I want to listen to the president one more time to clarify the fourth point where he said, if you pass a criminal background check. He made a distinction between felons and families. Over the past six years, deportation of criminals are up 80 . And thats why were going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons. Not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom whos working hard to provide for her kids. Well prioritize, just like Law Enforcement does every day. Okay. So what does that mean when he says pass a criminal background check . Does that mean no violent felonies . No traffic tickets . What will it mean to pass this . Well, its a very difficult standard. The president s rhetoric around felons not families is really problematic. Because felons often have families. Exactly. Its a misleading term. Its a violent person who has no place in our society but in reality if theyve had a conviction that was 10, 15 years ago where they have already repaid their debt to society or even if its a misdemeanor and in some cases, a marijuana violation possession that may have happened when you were a teenager and applied not only to undocumented immigrants but to people who have lawful permanent resident status, they can face deportation for something theyve already been punished for and the families are the ones who really suffer. This highlights a problem with the policy overall. Whenever we divide immigrant communities into the deserving and undeserving, we all suffer. Thats not because people in the undeserving category look a lot leak the people in the deserving category but also because the pure existence of an undeserving category seems to justify programs like mass deportation and detention which hurts all of us. Really the only solution is to make sure that everyone has due process. To me, that sounds like the challenges that africanamerican communities often face in attempts to do civil rights legaltalian work and the communities dealing with poverty, right, to divide the worthy from the unworthy. Last question and then well keep talking about the politics of it. Talk to me about what the president said there. Who is he trying to indicate with the skilled workers part . The president released a series of memos that explain these pieces in more detail. But in terms of the skilled workers, hes really trying to help some of the people who have often come to this country to study and who have advanced degrees in science technology, give them an easier way of being able to stay here instead of losing their skills and their education to other countries, which is a great program. Of course, there are many workers in this country who dont fit that category who still make tremendous contributions to our country and our society and there, again, they are being left out of that kind of dynamic. Again, we want to see longterm comprehensive reform which is going to take congress to act as well. Hold it with me. We have much more. Alina das is going to stay here and were going to bring in more voices, including this voice. With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of an acting bipartisan reform that he claims to seek. And as i told the president yesterday, hes damaging the presidency itself. Ring ring . 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Yesterdays lawsuit filing was the longpromised suit from Speaker John Boehner over the implementation of the Affordable Care act but the House Speaker did make time to react to the president S Immigration reform plans. With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of an acting bipartisan reform that he claims to seek. As i told the president yesterday, hes damaging the presidency itself. Back with me is law professor alina das and joining her is James Carafano and amy goodwin and juan. We heard boehner there. I want to hear a few more of the reactions from republicans on this and then ill come to you with a question. Yes. President obama seems to have forgotten that he is not a king. The president is ignoring the american people, our constitution. The president s imperial actions. He drops this bomb in the middle of us that will be it will tear us under this constitution. All right. So my question for you, juan, is this, in fact, unconstitutional, lawful illegal behavior . Well get to the policy part but is this behavior itself unconstitutional on the part of the president . It appears to be a case regardi regardi regarding the president s decided before this, more than enough room to make the decisions on all levels. If this gets decided in court, in many ways hes acting purs pursuant to the discretion given to him. When i listen to the kind of republican reactions, lets step back from it. If the primary anger, irritation and disagreement about the set of policies, the decisions about how Immigration Law is going to be enforced or is the primary angst about the procedure here . Because i think it helps me to understand what the possibilities for future Immigration Reform are if i can feel that the issue is either a procedural one or a substantive one. I think it might be a bit of both. I think people are angry at the president. If you think about it, it doesnt come across as great leadership. And the president has framed this that this is the congress fault. The legislative solution that was rooted in amnesty is a first step and thats always been controversial. Frankly, its been controversial with republicans and democrats. By the president sticking to that, he never put forward a legislative plan of his own. He never stepped out or took a leadership role in trying to put it through congress. Now hes turned around and said, congress has forced me to do this. I think thats part of the anger that weve seen on both sides of the aisle. What do you make of that, that there wasnt a white house alternative for a comprehensive Immigration Reform plan . I mean, the Senate Passed a bill. It was ready to go to the house. House Speaker Boehner said he was going to do it and then they just waited and waited and waited and not months, not but more than 500 days. I mean, i think clearly what is taking place right now is the deporter in chief, the president who has deported more immigrants than any president s in history, more than 2 million, has become the transformer in chief. He doesnt want that to be his legacy. Sometimes president s in their last two years do nothing, lame duck. It looks like president obama wants to redeem the legacy, wants to somehow start to answer to some of the movements that got him elected and this is very significant. So this strikes me as an important question because, in part, its a temporary fix. This will, at most, last three years, sort of basically the rest of his presidency. What, then, does that say about the possibility going into the next presidency whether it is a democrat who will likely continue to have republican legislative majorities or whether this is about the fact that republicans are irritated with the procedure but would with a different president be willing to turn this into lasting policy . Well, its clear that this is a temporary solution. I mean, immigration action is not the same aS Immigration reform. I think the president did put forth a lot of policies in a white house version of legislation, most of which ended up in the senate bill. I think the politics about why this temporary action is so controversial is also problematic. As an american people, we become desensitized to what deportation is. Its like getting an eviction notice, being told that youre going to lose your job, being told that you may lose your kids, being told that you cant see your family and then being forced to live in a country that you may not have been to in decades and may even face persecution. Its all of those things rolled up into one. Thats why the Supreme Court in 1922 called deportation the loss of old that makes life worth living. The normalized deportation to where we think its extreme for the president to give a temporary reprieve for people facing something so harsh in something so broken that people cant get a right to a hearing to present their case. There has been their long discourse of anchor babies, a really troubling one as a matter of appearance. Americanborn children were not anchors for their parents. Their parents were being deported away from them. Part of what the president is doing is allowing them to stay together. Here comes the revival of the anchor baby discourse. No question. The fact that hes messaging this, from my perspective, talk about keeping families together, the values cut across both parties and not only for the children but entire economies that they contribute to. Stay here because i want to bring in dreamer, christina jimenez. Shes appeared a number of times on the immigration policy. Her thoughts on the president s action is next and heres Nancy Pelosis opinion. I wish the republicans would at least give the public a chance to listen to what the president s trying to do and, also, let the public know that the emancipation proclamation was an executive order. Already 41 companies are investing almost 80 Million Dollars, and creating 1750 jobs. From long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. They are paying no property taxes, no corporate taxes, and no sales taxes. And with over 300 locations, and 3. 7 million square feet available, theres a place that is is right for your business. See if startupny can work for you. Go to startup. Ny. Gov. Mmmmmmm. Look out. Now theres even more of the amazing cinnamon taste you love on cinnamon toast crunch. Crave those crazy squares even more. [mony mony by billy idole she cokicks in on car stereo]y. 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Can this mismatched mess be conquered. By a little bit of dish liquid . It can if its dawn ultra. Its more concentrated. Just one bottle has the grease cleaning power of two bottles of this bargain brand. Heres to the overextended family gathering. Dawn, its amazing what a drop can do. The executive action president obama unveiled thursday night was made possible by the success of an initiative he announced two years ago. The deferred action, benefiting those that came to the United States as children. These people refer to themselves as dreamers because of their active efforts to get passage of the dream act. Standing for Development Relief for alienation of minors, it would have required unauthorized immigrants who entered the u. S. As a minor and had been here at least five years to apply for protected status within one year of graduating high school and or being admitted into an institution of higher learning. But the last time it came up for a vote in december of 2010, despite getting a 55 41 vote, it failed. The president introduced doca subject to renewal. Hes reaching out to the parents of those dreamers. Joining me now from our washington, d. C. , bureau, christina jimenez. So lovely to have you, christina. What is your reaction to the president s actions this week . Thank you so much for having me, melissa. We feel this is a huge victory for our communities, particularly because we have been working so hard organizing, coming out of the shadow and sharing our stories and putting that action on the president so these deportations can stop. At the same time, its a bittersweet moment. In fact, many young people who have doca will not be able to benefit. Their parents wont be able to benefit because they wouldnt fall under the category of having u. S. Citizen children or siblings in their households. Fortunately my mom and dad will be able to benefit. When youre talking about working so hard, i want to listen to the president , not thursday night but friday when he went to las vegas and acknowledges the work that dreamers have put into this effort. Lets listen to him for a moment. And the fact that a year and a half has gone by means that time is wasted. I will never give up. I will never give up. [ applause ] i will not give up. Cristina, i havent heard such enthusiastic cheers, quite honestly, since the 2008 election and im wondering how far this goes towards repairing the frayed relations president obama has been suffering with latino communities. It is definitely a very significant step forward. We know that it left many people without the protection of deportation. Many dreamers, young people across the country will still have to live in the fear that their parents will be deported. And we also know that this is a temporary reprieve from deportation and ultimately our community will need legislation so that we can have a pathway to citizenship and people like me, my parents and many others in my comm