Focus shifts to Obama if Congress axes immigration bill
(Reuters) - If immigration reform sputters in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, supporters are planning to push President Barack Obama to act on his own to help 11 million illegal residents, lawmakers and immigration advocates said.
Immigration law experts, some senators and House Democratic aides speculated that if Congress cannot agree on a wide-ranging immigration bill this year, Obama could use his executive authority to stop deporting parents of children living in the United States illegally.
Many of those children have won temporary reprieves on deportation and broadening the protection to their parents would be a way of keeping immigrant families together.
Navigating around Congress comes with plenty of drawbacks, though, since anything Obama could do would not be as lasting as enacting a law. Furthermore, he could not use his own powers to make sweeping changes, such as creating a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/03/us-usa-immigration-obama-idUSBRE97203620130803