Despite delaying any announcements until after mid-term elections, President Barack Obama is still promising to take some form of executive action on immigration reform this year.
With a minimum of eight more weeks before any announcement is made, it is helpful to look at what exactly an “executive action” is and what it can do. FWD.us has released this new video in which UCLA law professor Hiroshi Motomura succinctly explains how an executive action works, and what kind of actions can and can’t be taken.
In essence, according to Motomura, an executive action is intended to fill a gap or address vagueness in existing laws. An administrative relief program such as deferred action is a perfect example. “As long as congress is giving [the president] a system that has a huge gap between the number of people in the country who are undocumented and the resources that are applied to arrest, detain, and deport them,” he said, the president has the ability to exercise discretion.
You can watch the full video below.
