Will Obama Announce a New Executive Action Program?

Because of frustration with the inability of Congress to pass immigration reform, President Obama has vowed to take executive action in order to provide limited relief for a number of undocumented individuals in the U.S. President Obama had stated that he would act during the summer of 2014, but failed to do so. This decision not to take executive action has been explained as a decision not to hurt reelection chances for many Democratic Senators during the upcoming November elections. As the elections approach (November 4), the question now is whether we will see executive action after the elections. Additionally, what might executive action look like and who will benefit from it?

The answer to the first question, what will it look like, is perhaps easier to predict. As the head of our executive branch, our President controls the enforcement of our federal laws. Inherent in this power is the idea of “prosecutorial discretion”, namely the power to prioritize enforcement of some violations over others given limited government resources. President Obama used this executive power (“prosecutorial discretion”) in the context of the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to “defer action” for childhood arrivals and to grant them work permission. Because the enforcement tools are relatively limited, any executive action taken to benefit a new group will most likely be very similar to what occurred in the DACA program.

The more difficult questions is, who will be included in any new executive action program? There is much speculation about the answer to this question. Some have predicted that the policy will be very narrow, only including individuals who are willing and qualified to fill specific roles in the military. Others hope that the policy will benefit millions of individuals in the U.S. without documentation, provided they meet a host of eligibility requirements (no serious criminal convictions, residency requirements of 5, 10 or 15 years? Etc. . .) Who will be included in any future action is ultimately very hard to predict, only time will tell.