'Have No Doubt': Obama Vows Executive Action on Immigration Reform

'Have No Doubt': Obama Vows Executive Action on Immigration Reform

on Thu, 28 Aug 2014

After wrapping up questions at his press conference today, President Obama returned to the podium to answer a question from a reporter about his strategy on acting on immigration.

Obama explained that although “hope springs eternal” that Congress would address immigration reform, he felt that he had to act to make the system better.

“We’ve had a lot of stakeholder discussions, that set of proposals is being worked up,” he said, referring to several meetings at the White House with immigration activists and business leaders.

Obama acknowledged the summer border crisis, admitting that it “changed the perception of the American people” about the immigration debate.

He asserted that his administration had made progress by slowing down the number of apprehensions on the border throughout the summer.

Obama also complained that Congress had not passed his additional spending request to fund additional resources to combat the crisis.

“We’ve got to make some administrative and executive choices about -- for example -- getting more immigration judges down there,” he said.

Although Obama admitted that his administration was “busy” dealing with the consequences of the border crisis, he hinted that he had more to do before the election.

“It has not stopped the process of looking more broadly about how do we get a smart immigration system in place while we’re waiting for Congress to act,” he said.

“Have no doubt,” he added. “In the absence of Congressional action, I’m going to do what I can to make sure the system works better.”