Huffington Post — President Barack Obama will announce executive orders on immigration Thursday during an address to the nation, the White House confirmed in a Facebook video.
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long,” Obama said in the video. “So what I’m going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better even as I continue to work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem.”
Obama will speak at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday. He will follow up the announcement with a rally Friday in Las Vegas at Del Sol High School.
Fox News and The New York Times previously reported on the immigration plan, which could give deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) encouraged the president to “go big,” clarifying earlier remarks he’d made about getting “the finances of this country out of the way before” Obama announced executive orders on immigration. Top Democrats have pledged to stand behind Obama on the issue.
But others weren’t so encouraging. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Wednesday he believed lawsuits would be filed if Obama acted alone on immigration.
It’s time to fix our broken immigration system. Tomorrow night, President Obama will address the nation on new commonsense steps he’s taking to fix as much of it as he can. Tune in tomorrow at 8pm ET on http://WhiteHouse.gov/Immigration-Action #ImmigrationAction
