
As expected, last night President Obama unveiled his new immigration reform plan that would effectively defer deportation for 5 million undocumented immigrants. Under his new plan, parents of legal U.S. citizens or green card holders would be allowed to continue to live and work in the United States without the threat of deportation for three years. The plan also broadens the requirements necessary for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children, essentially granting legal status to hundreds of thousands more.
In his speech last night, he explained, “Mass amnesty would be unfair. Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I’m describing is accountability — a common-sense, middle-ground approach.” Many Republicans criticized Obama’s executive action, saying that he circumvented Congress, with some threatening to attempt to withhold funding. Rep. Bob Goodlatte told USA Today that the move “threatens to unravel our government’s system of checks and balances and imperils individual liberty” …