Earlier this year, the House of Representatives dismissed a comprehensive immigration reform bill entitled “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013”, which sought to establish a five-year route to lawful permanent residence, followed by citizenship, for illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. While many initially perceived this action as a death blow to immigration reform in the near future, some Republicans are now considerably concerned that the president will take executive action to bypass the congressional gridlock and institute his own revisions to U.S. policy. The White House recently confirmed that it, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, had commenced a reexamination of its administrations unprecedentedly pervasive deportation policy. One change being thoroughly entertained by the Obama administration is one that would effectively make noncriminals and minor offenders the lowest deportation priorities. Though the president has declined to elaborate on when said policy reforms might be enacted, many, including Senator Marco Rubio, fear that this reassessment indicates his willingness to act unilaterally on the issue of immigration reform.

If Obama were to utilize his executive prerogative to take actions into his own hands, it would mean the further exacerbation of tensions between his administration and the GOP-dominated house. House Speaker John Boehner predicts that such action by the president would “make it almost impossible to ever do immigration reform, because he will spoil the well to the point where no one will trust him by giving him a new law that he will implement the way the Congress intended.” Is the immediate implementation of reform really worth inciting additional antagonism and, consequently, increasing the likelihood of political stalemates in the future? http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/21/politics/immigration-not-dead/