The White House confirmed President Barack Obama will address the country Thursday to tell Americans that the executive action he is taking on immigration will not just benefit people who are eligible to apply for relief, but also how it is good for the nation as a whole, as NBC News Latino reported earlier.
In a Facebook video, the President why he is doing this.
"Tomorrow from the White House I'm going to be announcing some steps I can take to fix this broken immigration system," said Obama. On Friday he will go to Del School High School in Las Vegas, where he said he had gone two years before an laid out principles for comprehensive immigration reform.
According to a source familiar with the president's upcoming announcement, Obama will say that every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has taken executive action to address immigration issues and well over 1 million people have come to the U.S. and stayed as result of prior presidents' executive actions.
Anticipation has been building since midterm elections ended on when Obama would follow through on a promise to take executive action on immigration after House Republicans refused to advance a sweeping Senate comprehensive immigration bill or any Republican-approved and -drafted bills on immigration.
An NBC/WSJ poll released Wednesday finds almost half the country opposes executive action, preferring Congress to legislate on immigration,, though almost 6 in 10 Americans (57 percent) favor a pathway to citizenship for those immigrants in the country illegally.
--Suzanne Gamboa