This week, President Obama made big headlines when he declared that legislative immigration reform was dead, castigated the GOP for inaction, and announced that he would take unilateral action later this summer to reform our immigration system.
Today, a leaked memo from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus suggests five potential courses of action for Obama — five possibilities for executive action that he could take. The memo also includes six suggestions for “humane” enforcement reforms that DHS could make. The five recommended executive actions are:
- Expand DACA to immigrant workers, family members, and those who would qualify for the Senate immigration bill
- Extend “parole in place” to more immigrants, which would protect them from deportation and allow them to work in the country
- Permit adjustment of status for DACA and TPS recipients granted advance parole
- Expand humanitarian parole to family members of DACA recipients and the immediate family members of US citizens and legal permanent residents currently outside the US
- Allow DACA recipients, refugees, and other recipients to enlist in the military
In new polling released this week, Latino Decisions reminded us of the great support that Latino voters have for DACA and for future potential executive actions on immigration. DACA itself was a huge boost for Democrats, with 77% of all Latino voters becoming more favorable toward Democrats because of it — and 50% of all Latino voters becoming much more favorable toward Democrats because of it.
According to the polling, 87% of Latino voters would become more favorable toward Democrats if executive action protected immigrant parents from deportation:
84% of Latino voters would become more favorable toward Democrats if executive action protected the spouses of US citizens from deportation:
And 88% of Latino voters would become more favorable toward Democrats if executive action protected longtime residents from deportation:
View the rest of the executive action polling from Latino Decisions here.
