Immigration Reform Executive Action

There is a lot of debate over whether Obama's recent immigration executive action is constitutional or not. Saturday Night Live did a skit last night mocking Obama.


Zachary A. Goldfarb said,

This skit got a couple of things right, and a couple of things wrong. For starters, Obama didn't sign an executive order. He is taking executive action, in particular by directing the Department of Homeland Security to expand programs that defer deportation for classes of undocumented immigrants — parents of U.S. citizens or permanent-resident children, as well as undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

He also said

Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan used their authorities to extend protection to illegal immigrants.
...
Obama's measure still goes far beyond his predecessors, who shielded anywhere from 100,000 to 1.5 million people from deportations. If there is a court challenge, it would, in any event, go on for years, perhaps into the next president's term.

Regardless of how any challenge to this executive action turns out, Obama certainly has reversed his position on whether he could use executive authority to change immigration policy.

Tomorrow night, President Barack Obama will announce what appears to be the most sweeping executive action on immigration in American history. 

For years, he has called such action illegal; in fact, “The Kelly File” found 25 instances in which Obama said so on camera. 

“Today we know he’s about to do the very thing he said would flout the law, the very thing he said would be ‘very difficult to defend legally.’ And his defenders say, ‘Well he misunderstood the law.’ For six years?” Megyn Kelly questioned. ("Caught on Camera: Obama Called Exec Immigration Action Illegal… 25 Times!", FoxNews insider, Nov 19, 2014)