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Last Thursday President Obama announced that he was taking executive action to resolve part of the nation’s pressing illegal immigration problem. The President’s executive order will allow up to five million illegal immigrants to obtain work permits, thereby allowing them to legally stay and work in the United States for the next three years. This is nearly half of the country’s illegal immigrant population, which is estimated to be more than eleven million people. The President’s defenders argued that executive action had to be taken because Congress has failed to solve the illegal immigration problem over the last several decades, but opponents argued that the order was an abuse of executive power and that it would harm bipartisan cooperation for the next two years on Capitol Hill.
This topic brief will provide a quick overview of America’s illegal immigration problem, discuss the actions taken by President Obama last week, and breakdown how the President’s executive order will affect the political landscape in the short-term and for 2016. Extempers are highly encouraged to read last season’s topic brief on comprehensive immigration reform to get a more sufficient understanding of the politics surrounding immigration policy.
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
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