WASHINGTON — President Obama
will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as
next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement
system that will protect up to five million unauthorized immigrants from
the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits,
according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the
plan.
Asserting
his authority as president to enforce the nation’s laws with
discretion, Mr. Obama intends to order changes that will significantly
refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents.
One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of
children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal
work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated
from their families and sent away.
That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million
people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least
five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute,
an immigration research organization in Washington. But the White House
is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to
people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5
million people.
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