Bishops welcome Obama order on deportations

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that will permit as many as 5 million undocumented migrants to “come out of the shadows” and avoid the prospect of deportation should they be apprehended by police, writes Michael Sean Winters.

The Government will prioritise the apprehension of criminals and focus on preventing further border crossings, Mr Obama said.

The executive order came after continued refusal by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to allow a vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly last year. Critics of the President’s decision claimed the order violated the Constitution and that Mr Obama was acting like “an emperor”. The order does not grant undocumented workers a pathway to citizenship: only legislation could achieve that.

The Catholic bishops of the United States applauded the President’s decision. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who chairs the bishops’ conference committee on domestic policy, watched Mr Obama’s speech with 100 immigration lawyers. Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles sent out a flurry of tweets. “I welcome @WhiteHouse’s action because it will provide some relief for millions of people in great need,” the archbishop tweeted. “But the relief is not permanent, the problems are still not fixed.”