“If you look at the past, I have done far less than most of my predecessors in terms of executive actions. The difference is what Congress did about it. In particular, the answer of some Republicans, “In an interview with ABC News, Obama said.
His comments came a few days after he took a number of steps to reform immigration.
The Republicans, who are now in charge of both the Senate and the House, have been very critical of what he has done on his own to deal with this.
“If you ask historians, take a look at the track records of the modern presidency, I’ve actually been very restrained. And I’ve held back a lot when it comes to immigration. I did everything I could to get Congress to work, and I will keep doing everything I can. Because I like it that way, “Obama said.
About 5 million of the 11 million undocumented workers will be helped by the executive action.
“This morning, the Speaker said that you are acting like an emperor and hurting the presidency. Your response? “They asked him.
“Well, my answer is to pass a law. The Senate did a good job of making a bipartisan bill that would have made our immigration system much better, and I’d rather see this problem solved through legislation “Obama said.
“It didn’t happen because the Speaker of the House didn’t put the bill up for a vote. He still has a few weeks to call that bill in the House, or he can work with me and Democrats to make a new bill “he said.
Obama said that immigration reform hasn’t solved all of the problems.
“The only thing that is for sure is that we couldn’t solve the whole problem, and we still can’t. But we can give priority to felons, criminals, recent arrivals, and people who are coming right at the border. We can also recognise that if someone has been here for more than five years and has a child who is an American citizen or a legal permanent resident, it doesn’t make sense to give them priority when we know we need more resources “he said.
Obama said that it’s not different if Congress did something specific and left something out, and then a President goes ahead and does more than what Congress agreed to.
“It’s the same. We make decisions about how to prosecute all the time, “he said.