President Obama will sign an executive order Friday to significantly alter U.S. immigration policy to reduce deportations of illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age.Still ruling by decree...
The politically charged decision comes as Obama faces a tough reelection fight against Republican Mitt Romney, with Hispanic voters in swing states seen as a key bloc.
The executive order could allow as many as 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally not only to remain in the country without fear of being deported, but to work legally, according to The Associated Press.
Obama is set to make a statement about the order at 1:15 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the new policy Friday morning.
"Our nation's immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner," Napolitano said in a statement. "But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."
The new policy will not grant citizenship to children who came to the United States as illegal immigrants, but will remove the threat of deportation and grant them the right to work in the United States.