News of President Barack Obama's impending executive action on immigration reform sparked excitement and hope among advocates but outrage among opponents across California.
Obama will address the nation at 5 p.m. PST on Thursday to outline actions he says he's taking because Congress won't.
The House's GOP leadership has refused to take up a bipartisan immigration-reform bill that the Senate approved in June 2013.
On Friday, the president will fly to Las Vegas to speak at Del Sol High School, "where he laid out his principles for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform nearly two years ago," the White House announced.
President Barack Obama speaks during the ConnectED to the Future event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. The president will travel to Las Vegas Friday, a Democratic official said, heightening anticipation that he will announce executive orders on immigration this week. The president is expected to take administrative steps to protect as many as 5 million people in the country illegally from deportation, and grant them work permits. Republicans are vehemently opposed to the president's likely actions, with some conservative members threatening to pursue a government shutdown if Obama follows through on his promises to act on immigration before the end of the year. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ( Carolyn Kaster )
Obama will act to shield about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, according to reports published Wednesday by the New York Times and Politico. About four million will be eligible for temporary protective status, and another one million through other means.
News reports said protection will be given to those whose children are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and who have been living in the country for a period of time with no criminal records. Those covered by the order might be able to get work permits, but will not qualify for coverage under the nation's new health care law.
No protection will be afforded to people just because they're farm workers, or parents who brought their children here illegally. Those undocumented children, often called "Dreamers," were covered by a similar action Obama took in 2012.
"We are all hoping and praying that the president makes decisions that allow long-time members of the American community to come out of the shadows, and to make even more contributions to the nation," said Mickie Luna, a vice president of the League of United Latino American Citizens. who said she intends to be at home with her family recording the address for posterity.
"It's about time. Promises were made and they inspire and motivate the Latino community to come out and vote," she said. "Immigration is an across-the-board issue. It's not just about Mexicans coming over the border from Mexico. It's about all kinds of people coming from all over the world through all the borders."
The action is long overdue, agreed Anoop Prasad, senior staff attorney for immigrant rights at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.
"In some ways this decision came fast" after the midterm elections, he said, "but in other ways we have been waiting over a year and a half as this move has been delayed for one reason or another. Obama should have already taken action on this."
Prasad said his organization's phone has been ringing off the hook. "Right now there is a lot of excitement in the immigrant communities about those who will be helped and included, but also some sadness about those who will be left out. People have been calling asking us: 'What is true?' 'What is not?' Everyone wants to know what we know."
Other advocates also said the pending actions fall short in certain ways.
"Not including the parents of the Dreamers is a huge disappointment," said Catherine Tactaquin, executive director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Oakland. "That provision was expected and seemed like a natural component to set in motion. Not having parents included and leaving them as highly deportable is a loss of a great opportunity."
Tactaquin said advocates have been urging Obama to take executive action since 2009, yet "this will leave out more than half of the undocumented workers from a temporary reprieve. What will happen to those families? Will they become super-deportable?"
She also cited a call for increased border security. "That is bad news for border communities already living under militarized conditions. The U.S. is already funneling people into dangerous terrain and through border communities where there is lot of harassment, abuse and racial profiling by the Border Patrol."
On the other side, however, opponents of illegal immigration were outraged that the president will act without congressional consensus.
"People need to go back where they came from. The fact that they got here illegally means they are lawbreakers," said Dena Freeman, a Tea Party of Northern California member. "If they want to get in, they need to get in line."
Freeman, a Placer County resident who founded and leads the organization's Tea Party in the Hills chapter, said people who follow the rules to become citizens should be celebrated. But "the president has used his magic pencil on executive orders for far too long," she said, though she doesn't favor impeaching Obama as some conservatives have suggested.
That process "would take too long," she said. Instead, "it's time for Congress to put on their jock straps and do what they are supposed to do."
Joe Guzzardi, of the Santa Barbara-based Californians for Population Stabilization, agreed the executive action "is something the American people do not want. That was demonstrated in the election. It is deeply disappointing the president has chosen to go this route."
Obama's plan "is certainly going to trigger more illegal immigration. In Mexico and Central America and other places around the world people are going to know, 'Hey if I can get there something good is going to happen.'"
It could also cost Americans jobs, Guzzardi said. With millions of people able to get work permits under the president's plan, "someone is going to be willing to do a job an American already has for less money."
Guzzardi said he expects congressional Republicans to eliminate funding for any program used to implement the executive order. "I would like to see it resolved in the quickest and most direct way possible. That's cutting off the money to any program that issue work permits."
Yet experts say this could go a long way to incorporate these immigrants into society.
"If there is some protection from deportation and ability to get legal authorization to work, this will be good for immigrant integration — not just for those receiving some protection but also for family members, including citizens and those with status," said Irene Bloemraad, a UC Berkeley sociology professor who serves on a National Academies of Sciences committee that's reporting on immigrants' integration into U.S. society.
But "looking forward, this does set up the possibility for large-scale protests, like back in 2006, if a future Republican president or Congress later rescinds deportation protection and work authorization," Bloemraad added.
Christopher Martinez, director of legal services at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, said agencies like his already are reaching out through Spanish-speaking church parishes and ethnic media to urge immigrants to avoid fraudulent "legal experts" trying to take advantage of the situation. Unlike the U.S.-raised Dreamers who benefited from the 2012 deferred action order, the older immigrants who are expected to benefit from Thursday's order are typically less fluent in English and might be more susceptible to abuse.
"We really want to get the message out right away, within 48 hours, 'Don't pay anyone any money,'" Martinez said.
Congressional Democrats in recent weeks have kept up a steady drumbeat of calls for Obama to act.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer noted on the Senate floor Wednesday that Republicans weren't outraged when Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush took executive action to grant protection to certain undocumented immigrants.
"If we don't act, the dire situation of undocumented immigrants will only get worse, families will continue to be torn apart, people will continue to live in the shadows," said Boxer, D-Calif.
"I say to the president today ... if you act, you will have my strong support and you will have the support of so many people across the country. You will keep families together, you will strengthen our economy, you will make our country stronger."
Many women in the Bay Area's domestic workforce of housecleaners and caregivers could benefit, especially if they have children who are U.S. citizens, said Ariana Gil Nafarrate, an organizer for Mujeres Unidas y Activas, based in Oakland and San Francisco.
But "a lot of our members don't have kids" and so are unlikely to get any relief, she said. "I know a lot of people are still going to be left out."
"The worry is that, if this is what folks have been waiting for, and it covers so few people, and we've been fighting so hard, this can't be the only thing our community gets," Gil Nafarrate said, adding that she — like many immigration reform advocates — would've preferred that Congress pass a comprehensive bill.
But with no such bill in sight, "executive action is incredibly necessary," she said. "Yes, he should do it. He should have done it years ago."
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