Executive Actions on Immigration | Overview about "All" Administrative B...

More than 1,100 immigrants are separated from their families and communities each day through deportations.

The Obama administration has both the legal authority and the moral responsibility to prevent tomorrow’s citizens from suffering the consequences of political inaction on Capitol Hill. It can act without congressional assistance by providing what’s known in the legal community as “administrative relief.”

“Administrative relief” is based on prosecutorial discretion (the power to make decisions about an immigrant’s ability to remain in the U.S.) and includes various forms of temporary relief from deportation and work authorization.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can expand its prosecutorial discretion guidelines. Currently, DHS can postpone, suspend or stop deportation proceedings, release a person from detention, or lower the priority of a case that does not serve enforcement interests. DHS also can grant work authorization and should expand the eligible categories to include people whose removal cases have been administratively closed.