WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama laid out ambitious objectives Friday for immigration steps he intends to take on his own and said he had already received some recommendations from the Homeland Security and Justice departments for executive action he could implement without Congress.
Facing competing pressures from immigration advocacy groups and from Democrats nervous about November's midterm election, Obama made no commitment about whether he would act in the coming weeks as he had earlier pledged.
"My expectation is that fairly soon, I'll be considering what the next steps are," he said during a news conference in Wales at the end of a two-day NATO summit.
Still, Obama spelled out his goals with a degree of specificity that he had previously not detailed. He said that without congressional action to overhaul the immigration system, he would take steps to increase border security, to upgrade the processing of border crossers, to encourage legal immigration, and to give immigrants who have been illegally in the United States for some time a path to become legal residents, pay taxes, pay a fine and learn English.
"In the absence of … action by Congress, I'm going to do what I can do within the legal constraints of my office," he said.
Legal experts and lawmakers have debated the extent of Obama's authority. It's also unclear how far Obama could go without congressional approval in meeting the goals he listed Friday.
The Senate passed a broad overhaul of immigration last year. The House has balked at acting on any broad measure.