CNBC’s John Harwood is reporting that the President is expected to announce the details of his much talked about executive action on immigration in a speech in Las Vegas on Friday:
President Barack Obama plans to announce an executive order in Las Vegas on Friday to address immigration reform, CNBC has confirmed.
Another source familiar with the situation told CNBC that Obama could yet give a broader outline on an immigration order on Thursday and add detail on Friday.
The president has been long expected to make an announcement that would protect up to five million unauthorized immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide work permits.
Partisan fighting erupted in the summer over how to address the increased flow of unaccompanied minors from Central America at the U.S. border with Mexico
Obama has asked for $3.7 billion to address the border crisis. In the summer, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, however, passed a measure that only gave Obama a fraction of what he sought and made it easier to deport the young migrants arriving at the border, a provision opposed by Democrats and immigration advocates. In the end, Congress adjourned without a final bill.
The Democratic-led Senate last year passed a broad overhaul of immigration with support from some Republicans that boosted border security, increased visas for legal immigrants and a provided a path to citizenship for immigrants illegally in the country.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported the broad outlines of the kind of executive action the President is contemplating earlier this week. Whether this is what we’ll see on Friday, or even if the reports today are true or end up getting changed. But, it it would appear that the President has decided to go forward with this notwithstanding the warnings from Congressional leaders in the GOP and the observations of some political observers that action at this point will end up making the next two years in Washington difficult to navigate to say the very least.
Update: NBC News is reporting that the President will speak to the nation about his plan on Thursday night:
NBC News has confirmed Obama will make announcement tomorrow night to detail his executive action on #immigration
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) November 19, 2014
