President Obama Considers Move on Immigration

[Content Note: Anti-immigrationism.]

President Obama is reportedly mulling a massive move on immigration ahead of the mid-term elections in November, which would "grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally, allowing them to stay in the United States without threat of deportation."

That sounds terrific, although there's a caveat: "Advocates would like to see deferred action made available to anyone who would have been eligible for eventual citizenship under a comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed last year, which would be around 9 million people. But Obama told them in a meeting a month ago to 'right-size' expectations, even as he pledged to be aggressive in steps he does take."

Hmm. Well.

So how might he make the distinction regarding to which undocumented immigrants to extend some sort of legal residency? "That's led advocates to focus on other populations Obama might address, including parents or legal guardians of U.S. citizen children (around 3.8 million people as of 2009, according to an analysis by Pew Research's Hispanic Trends Project) and parents or legal guardians of DACA recipients (perhaps 500,000 to 1 million people, according to the Fair Immigration Reform Movement)."

So starting with keeping families together. Though, of course, that may exclude, say, an aunt or uncle who is part of a family but not a parent. It sure ain't perfect.

Anyway, a lot of options are apparently being considered. We'll see what proposals emerge.

One thing about which we can be almost certain, however:

Such a large-scale move on immigration could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama, a prospect White House officials have openly discussed.

Of course.