Obama Plans to Protect Over 4 Million Illegal Immigrants from Deportation

United States President, Barack Obama, has unveiled a new immigration plan that will protect over four million undocumented immigrants from deportation. However, the plan is causing causing controversy, because he plans to implement it without consent from the Congress, and despite opposition from many including Republicans.

Here’s what the new immigration plan entails, as reported by CNN:

• Offering papers and work authorization to up to four million people who are undocumented parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, as long as they have lived in the U.S. for five years or longer
• The changes will offer those who qualify the chance to stay temporarily in the country for three years, as long as they pass background checks and pay back taxes
• Those who qualify will not be offered a path to eventual citizenship or be eligible for federal benefits or health care programs
• Obama will remove the upper age limit of 30 years old from a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Dreamers that allows those brought illegally to the country as children to stay, offering relief to thousands more people
• The DACA program will cover anyone who arrived in the country before 2010 and will extend a previous two-year guarantee of relief to three years

However, Obama has warned that the new immigration plan will not protect criminals.

“If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up,” he said.

The president emphasized that the plan also entails bolstering border security and making it harder for unauthorized outsiders to enter the United States.