President Obama vowed he would take executive action to slow deportations before the end of 2014 — but still has not said when exactly he will do so.
The delay of the long-promised actions until after the election, instead of this summer, was meant to help vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in conservative states. Despite the delay, almost all of those candidates lost, many by wide margins.
Two prominent Democrats have, since Tuesday, floated the possibility of delaying the executive actions further until next year, and give the newly Republican Congress an opportunity to move immigration legislation first.
David Axelrod, Obama's former chief adviser, wrote on Twitter Wednesday that delay could force the GOP hand. "Immigration bill won a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate," he wrote. "POTUS should agree to shelve exec order for up or down vote in House." Axelrod did not respond to an email about the tweet.
On Thursday, former DNC chair and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell suggested April or even June as a potential deadline after which Obama could tell Republicans he'll act if Congress doesn't send him a bill.
"There are two ways I think he could go about it. One, he could impose a timeline now, say, 'If you send me a bill by April of next year, I won't issue an executive order, but here's the executive order I will issue if you don't send me a bill,'" Rendell said on a conference call hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank. "Or he can issue the executive order now and say, 'As soon as you send me a bill I'll sign it, and then if I can sign I will sign — obviously it will supersede the executive order.'"
Rendell participated in an immigration discussion at the White House on Wednesday this week, as part of a Bipartisan Policy Center delegation. Officials with the group said Rendell's views were his own and not the group's.
Obama and the White House have insisted over and over since the election that executive action is still very much on the table. The White House did not respond directly to Rendell and Axelrod, but pointed to the many public statements from White House principles since the polls closed on Tuesday night. The central message: Executive action isn't the end of the process, it's just a piece of it. If Republicans want to negate it with legislation, Obama's ready to, in the words of White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, "tear up" the executive order.
Likewise, congressional Democrats are still standing by calls for executive action — nothing, they say, has changed since Tuesday's Republican wave.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told BuzzFeed News a priority for Obama should be using his "well-established" executive authority to protect the parents of undocumented youth brought to the country as children, known as DREAMers.
"Steps such as deferring action against parents of DREAMers and U.S. citizens. Immigrants who are law-abiding, hardworking, tax-paying parents of people who will remain in this country so that families can be kept together and there's precedent for it," he said, pointing to the "Family Fairness" policy implemented by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department are currently in the process of making final recommendations to the White House for potential executive actions.
Among their considerations is the question of whether the actions should extend de facto legal status to the parents of DREAMers — a measure that would have a dramatic impact on the number of undocumented immigrants covered by the actions.
Advocates reached by BuzzFeed News since Tuesday's election have said they are urging Senate leadership including Sens. Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, and Bob Menendez to act in unison and call on the president to protect as many undocumented immigrants as possible from deportation administratively.
"If House Republicans want to finally come to the table to pass a bill, we are ready to work with them," Reid's office said in a statement. "But because Republicans have continued to block immigration reform, the president shouldn't delay actions that will improve the functioning of our immigration system in a way that supports families, workers and business."
Speaker John Boehner, who has in the past said immigration should be considered by the House, said Thursday that if Obama takes executive action, it "will poison the well" and there will be "no chance" for a legislative effort.
Whether the administration really has the authority to take executive action has been a continued point of contention with Republicans since the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals measure that extended protections to some undocumented immigrants.
Republican inaction, Democrats maintained on Thursday, continues to be the reason why Obama should do the opposite: Take executive action now and not wait for legislation in the Republican-controlled Congress.
"The fact is, Republicans are responsible for the immigration impasse we are in, and I continue to believe the president must step in now and offer big, bold administrative relief for the millions stuck in the shadows," Menendez said in a statement. "I am encouraged that the president recognizes there is a cost to waiting and has reiterated his commitment to using his executive authority to act on immigration. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform legislation, we look forward to the president acting as soon as possible."
"Durbin's position has not changed," said spokesperson Ben Marter. "He strongly supports president Obama taking administrative action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for years and have not committed serious crimes."
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer gave his first comments on the issue since the election to BuzzFeed News, calling for Obama to deliver strong administrative actions.
"It is not only the morally right thing to do, but it will increase America's competitiveness and provide certainty to businesses," he said in a statement. "The president has the support of a wide range of interests, including the business community, agriculture community, labor, and the faith community, and I am hopeful he will take action soon."
Hoyer added that executive action is no substitute for congressional action and he will continue to support an overhaul.
A senior House Democratic aide said specifics for Obama should include extending deferred action to the parents and caregivers of deferred action recipients, allowing DREAMers to serve in the military, permitting the parents of children born in the U.S. to stay here, and/or limiting the role that local governments have in helping to enforce federal immigration statutes. Importantly, the aide added that, if one or several of these items was not included in the actions, Democrats' support would not be diminished.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez — who Wednesday reiterated his call for Obama to protect 5 to 8 million undocumented immigrants — responded to the Democratic leaders supporting prompt and robust administrative action.
"Congressman Gutierrez thinks the president should go big, go broad, and go soon, and he welcomes the fact that other Democrats are saying the same thing," his spokesperson said. "It is important to the security, economy, and well-being of the country – and the success of the policy – to go as big as the law allows the president to go."
Also on Thursday, a broad coalition of organizations that support prompt administrative action, including National Council of La Raza (NCLR), UWD, NILC, Church World Service, the SEIU and AFL-CIO unions, and others, held an event asking for Obama "to expand immediate relief from deportations for millions of workers and families that are already a part of our American communities."
A potential delay, unsurprisingly, is a nonstarter among immigration activists who were apoplectic when Obama delayed his executive action until after the election at the behest of red state Democrats, many of whom lost on Tuesday night.
"Literally my first reaction is don't pee on my leg and tell me that it's raining," said Gabriela Domenzain, director of Hispanic press outreach for Obama's 2012 campaign, when asked about Axelrod's tweet. "If [the Republicans] want to do something, they can do their job and legislate. [Obama] has done everything to get them to the table."
Speaking of the reaction of the immigrant rights movement as a whole, Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center said, "As soon as that gets floated out there we will pounce on that and make it clear that the administration can not listen to that."
For now, no one in immigration circles seems to be taking Axelrod's or Rendell's suggestion of delay very seriously. Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which represents the center-right push for immigration legislation with its Bibles, Badges, and Business coalition, said his network is divided on executive action, but is still pushing hard for immigration action of some kind. He's not advocating the White House delay executive action until the Republicans take over on Capitol Hill.
"If you have a bird in hand, you take it," he said.