A plan that would shield around 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally from deportation is being proposed by President Barack Obama and his administration, according to The New York Times.
The White House is attempting to include parents and spouses of United States citizens and permanent residents, as long as they have resided in the U.S. for a certain period of time, the Times reported. That group totals around 3.8 million people.
The president is also likely to expand his 2-year-old program that protects young immigrants from deportation, according to the Times.
Other expected changed may occur with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allowed immigrants under 31 who had arrived before June 2007 to apply for a reprieve from deportation and a work permit, the Times reported.
More than 600,000 young immigrants have been saved from deportation under the program, and removing the upper age limit so that applicants don't have to be under 31 is one option that under consideration and would make an additional 200,000 people eligible, according to the Times.
Obama said Congress could simply undo his executive actions by passing comprehensive immigration legislation but "would advise that if in fact they want to take a different approach, rather than devote a lot of time trying to constrain my lawful actions as the chief executive of the U.S. government in charge of enforcing our immigrations laws, that they spend some time passing a bill," during a news conference in Yangon, Myanmar, the Times reported.
An Obama official said it's possible the president's immigration announcement could come next week, but the official said the president hadn't made a decision yet either about timing or content of the decision, according to the Times.
