Some Republicans suggested that Obama's move could face legal challenges but several law professors said Friday that it is unlikely that Obama's order could be challenged successfully in court. Presidents have broad executive power for such temporary orders and prosecutorial discretion.
George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr said criminal enforcement is the domain of the executive branch and deportation decisions would fall under that authority.
University of Houston law professor Michael A. Olivas said Friday's directive is well within a president's usual authority.
Political analysts cast Obama's move as a savvy strategy for what could be a very close race for the White House.
"The Obama administration knows it's in a very tight race and if the margins that it enjoyed among unmarried women, gays, Hispanics and blacks don't hold, then he might end up on the wrong end of this thing," said Cal Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "So he's going around and touching all these bases."
OBAMA'S REVERSAL
Under Obama's plan, those who qualify would be allowed to live and work in the United States for two years and could be eligible for extensions, the Obama administration said.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who made the initial announcement of Obama's order on Friday, said that illegal immigrants up to 30 years old who came to the United States as children and do not pose a risk to national security would be eligible to stay in the country and allowed to apply for work permits.
To avoid deportation under Obama's plan, a person must have come to the United States under the age of 16 and have resided in the country for at least five years.
They must be in school or have graduated from high school or be honorably discharged from the U.S. military. They also must not have been convicted of any felony or significant misdemeanor offenses.
Obama has long supported measures to allow the children of illegal immigrants to study and work in the United States, but efforts to pass such measures in Congress have failed amid objections by Republicans.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act passed the House in 2010, when Democrats controlled that chamber. But it fell a few votes short in the Senate, amid strong Republican opposition.
Friday's announcement was a victory for Hispanic groups that have long called on Obama to use his executive powers and it marked somewhat of a reversal by the administration. Last July, in a speech to the National Council of La Raza, Obama said he was reluctant to bypass Congress.
There are up to 2 million illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children and who remain in the country, according to immigration group estimates. US officials said the new measures would affect roughly 800,000 people.
Most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States are Hispanics. There are now 51 million Hispanics living in the United States out of a total population of 309 million.
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