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Tom McCarthy in New York

Obama leads immigration rally as Republicans vow to block executive actions – as it happened

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform during a visit to Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014. O
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform during a visit to Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014. O Photograph: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS

We’re going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. A recent blog summary is here.

At the end of a bruising couple days in the partisan public fight over immigration reform, the two sides have retreated to their respective corners. After hosting a big rally in front of a friendly crowd in Las Vegas, President Barack Obama plans to spend the night in Nevada, doubtless after taking care of some local fund-raising.

Hint: Golf.

House speaker John Boehner was off for a long Thanksgiving holiday following his scathing two-minute critique of the president on Capitol Hill this morning. And all was quiet across the land.

Except. In. Texas.

Updated

The White House speaks Spanish on Twitter:

Latin American governments have enthusiastically welcomed President Barack Obama’s announcement of sweeping immigration reforms, though some activists and commentators have stressed its limitations, Jo Tuckman reports from Mexico City for the Guardian:

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, described the reforms on Friday as the “most important measures taken in several decades”, adding that the actions would allow families to stay together.

“I want to publicly recognize the president of the United States for yesterday’s announcement,” said Peña Nieto. “These measures bring relief to principally Mexican immigrants.” [...]

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández tweeted his thanks to Obama “in the name of millions of Hondurans and Central Americans”.

Read the full piece here.

Why the Arpaio coverage on Fox? Because the controversial Arizona sheriff has filed a quixotic lawsuit to block the president’s latest executive actions on immigration. The Washington Post reports:

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed a lawsuit Thursday in a U.S. District Court against President Obama over his executive action on immigration.

In the complaint, Arpaio calls the executive action and the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “unconstitutional abuses of the President’s role in our nation’s constitutional architecture and exceed the power of the President within the U.S. Constitution.”

“The President cannot simply announce sweeping new rules and implement them by giving a speech,” the complaint reads.

Outgoing senate majority leader Harry Reid tweets a picture of the back of his own head as he listens to Obama’s speech.

Summary

Nothing new policy-wise there. A predictably warm reception for the president’s big rollout speech for immigration reform.

  • The president reassured the crowd he was not backing down despite talk of his having overstepped his executive powers or accusations that he had sabotaged the democracy. “I will never give up,” he said.
  • The president borderline mocked Republicans for not advancing immigration legislation. “Pass a bill,” he repeated. “Pass a bill!” He said he had been willing to wash House speaker John Boehner’s car or walk his dog if he would bring a vote on the Senate immigration bill.

UPDATE:

  • Obama rejected the suggestion that he had short-circuited democracy by making an end-run around Congress. “I didn’t dissolve parliament,” he says. He said legislation on immigration was still needed and vowed to work with his Republican accusers.

Updated

Obama says everybody who came here shared one thing which is hope. “Hope that AMerica is the place where we could make it. That’s what makes us Americans. It’s not what we look at. It’s not what our last name is. It’s not where we come from. It’s not how we pray...”

Here’s the booming climax. The crowd comes to its feet. And he’s done.

Updated

Here’s a pretty good view of the president from Rory Carroll:

Obama:

“We have to focus not on our fears. We have to focus on our hopes.”

Then he starts talking about a letter he got at the White House. That means he’s almost done.

Obama calls for bipartisan cooperation, which is optimistic considering the House speaker accused him of being an emperor who has trashed the rule of law and damaged the presidency.

“Washington should not let disagreement on this one issue be a dealbreaker on every issue,” Obama says. “COngress should not shut down government again over this.”

Obama pushes back at Boehner’s comments this morning:

I understand that some of them are saying my actions sabotage their ability to pass a bill.

Why? I didn’t dissolve parliament. That’s not how our system works. .. They can still vote in Congress. Pass a bill! I don’t have a vote in Congress.

Obama: 'Pass a bill!'

“What we are offering is accountability. ... a common-sense, middle ground approach,” Obama says.

“We’re still gonna need legislation. But the actions I’ve taken are not only lawful, theyr’e the kinds of actions taken by every ... president for the past half-century”

A lot of this speech is cut-and-pasted from last night. The crowd’s enthusiasm for these lines are undimmed.

He just got to the line about “I have a simple answer: pass a bill.”

He hammers on it: Pass a bill. Pass a bill. Nobody is stopping them from passing a bill. Pass a bill.

The crowd starts chanting, Pass a bill! Pass a bill!

Obama: “The fact is that, even Republicans who say that they don’t want to pass this bill, they’re not serious about trying to deport 10-11m people. THat’s all rhetoric.”

Then Obama describes who the actions benefit:

What we do expect is people that are here to play by the rules... so if you’ve been here more than 5 years. If you have kids who are citizens or legal permanent residents. IF you register, pass a background check and pay taxes...”

You can come out of the shadows.

But it doesn’t apply to recent arrivals. “Borders mean something,” Obama says.

“While I support a path to citizenship, this action doesn’t grant a right to citizenship... only Congress can do that.”

The Guardian’s Rory Carroll is in the house.

“The fact is, millions of immigrants, they live here. And they’ve been here a long time.”

Obama is interrupted, but whatever the interrupter says is drowned out by the crowd chanting Si se puede.

Somebody else yells something. Somebody yells “I love you.”

Obama resumes: “Not everybody will qualify under this provision. That’s the truth. And that’s why we’re still going to have to pass a bill.”

“I’ve heard you,” he says. “I’ve heard you. I’ve heard you young man. I’m talking to a lot of people here. I’ve been respectful to you. Now I want you to be respectful to me.”

Obama describes three basic parts of his immigration actions:

1. giving more resources to law enforcement to provide border security.

2. make it easier for high-tech workers to come and stay.

3. take steps to deal “responsibly with millions of undocumented immigrants who are already here.”

Obama:

I cajoled, I called, and I met. I told John Boehner, you know, I’ll wash your car, I’ll walk your dog, whatever you need me to do. Just call the vote.

And he didn’t do it. And the fact that a year and a half has gone by means that time has been wasted... and we can’t wait any more.

Las Vegas, I’ve come back to Del Sol to tell you, I will never give up. I will not give up.

The crowd breaks into cheers of Si se puede.

Obama attacks House Republicans for trashing the Senate legislation:

It has now been 512 days – a year and a half – in which the only thing standing in the way of that bipartisan bill and my desk so that I can sign that bill... is a simple yes or no vote in the House of Representatives.

If they had allowed a vote... it would have passed. I would have signed it. It would be the law right now.

A crowd member yells, “Thank you mr president!”

“You’re welcome!” he says. More applause and cheers.

Obama is setting up a declaration of victory after the speech he gave in this room two years ago. He’s recalling that at the time, in January 2013, he visited Del Sol high school and called for comprehensive immigration reform.

“After I laid out those principles, we went to work with Congress,” Obama says. A majority favored reform and passed a Senate bill, he says. The bill wasn’t perfect. “That’s how things work in a democracy”.

During his presidency, Obama notes, illegal border crossings has been cut by more than half. “Overall the number of people trying to cross our border illegally is at its lowest level since the 1970s. When I was in high school. And I’ve got gray hair now.”

Here in America, Obama says, “you can make it if you try.”

He says the immigration system has long been broken. The system “feels fundamentally unfair.” Families who try to come the right way get stuck in line. Some business owners play by the rules while others take shortcuts.

But “folks like Astrid and Astrid’s parents,” who want to contribute, “are forced to live in the shadows.”

“Well, today we’re doing something about it,” he says.

Obama begins by re-telling the story of Astrid Silva, which you can find here.

“Part of what makes America exceptional is that we welcome exceptional people like Astrid,” he says.

Obama gives Silva a big hug. He starts speaking. Hello Las Vegas! The crowd loves him. “Good to see you again. You were here two years ago!”

It sounds like a pep rally for a state championship football team.

Astrid Silva is speaking in advance of the president at Del Sol high school in Nevada. “This announcement will change so many lives, including my own,” she says.

Even though it doesn’t include everyone, I know that our community and the president will keep fighting for comprehensive immigration reform”

Big applause.

Updated

Here is page one of a memo just released by the White House “from the president to the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies regarding Modernizing and Streamlining the U.S. Immigrant Visa System for the 21st Century”:

executive memo
Executive immigration memo, 21 November 2014. Photograph: white house

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York describes the ranked levels of immigration enforcement priorities laid out in a new department of homeland security memo:

The new priorities are striking. On the tough side, the president wants U.S. immigration authorities to go after terrorists, felons, and new illegal border crossers. On the not-so-tough side, the administration views convicted drunk drivers, sex abusers, drug dealers, and gun offenders as second-level enforcement priorities. An illegal immigrant could spend up to a year in prison for a violent crime and still not be a top removal priority for the Obama administration.

Read the full piece here.

The Pentagon may change its recruitment policies in light of the rules changes announced Thursday, the Hill reports:

The Pentagon is working on ways to begin enlisting people with family members who could be living in the country illegally.

The current Pentagon policy is that those with undocumented parents or other family members cannot enlist in the military, but the military is assessing its options in the wake of President Obama’s executive actions.

“We are working with the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate our options,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said Friday at a press briefing.

Read the full piece here.

DHS memo on new policies for 'detention and removal'

The official Department of Homeland Security memo describing new “Policies for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants” can be found here (pdf).

The memo begins:

Policies for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants

This memorandum reflects new policies for the apprehension, detention, and removal of aliens in this country. This memorandum should be considered Department-wide guidance, applicable to the activities of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This memorandum should inform enforcement and removal activity , detention decisions, budget requests and execution, and strategic planning.

In general, our enforcement and removal policies should continue to prioritize threats to nationa l security, public safety, and border security. The intent of this new policy is to provide clearer and more effective guidance in the pursu it of those priorities. To promote public confidence in our enforcement activities, I am also directing herein greater transparenc y in the annual reporting of our removal statistics, to include data that tracks the priorities outlined below.

Read the full thing here (pdf).

The Guardian’s Rory Carroll finds a familiar face in Las Vegas for the president’s speech.

Huerta: ‘Obama went as far as he legally could.’ Republicans? ‘A lot of their stuff driven by racism.’

Anti-Obama protesters gather across the street from Del Sol High School where President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on his use of executive authority to relax U.S. immigration policy in Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014 .
Anti-Obama protesters gather across the street from Del Sol High School where President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on his use of executive authority to relax U.S. immigration policy in Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014 . Photograph: MIKE BLAKE/Reuters
Ken Adams (L) argues with an anti-Obama protester outside a high school where President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on his use of executive authority to relax U.S. immigration policy in Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014.
Ken Adams (L) argues with an anti-Obama protester outside a high school where President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on his use of executive authority to relax U.S. immigration policy in Vegas, Nevada November 21, 2014. Photograph: MIKE BLAKE/Reuters

Updated

Obama’s executive actions on immigration last night received multiple laudatory shout-outs at the Latin Grammy Awards, broadcast on Univision immediately following the speech, Time magazine reports.

Here’s what Iglesias said:

Good evening. We’re here in France, in Paris, and we want to send you a very big hug. We wish we could be there with all of you celebrating. This night is not only historic for all the Latino artists, but for all the Latino people who live in the U.S. A big hug. Thank you.

The winning track was Bailando.

Two families watched Obama’s immigration speech together – but the president’s plan only helps one. Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) describes a bittersweet scene he witnessed last night at a watch party for the president’s speech (the bare bones of this story appeared in our Thursday night live blog):

But Ingrid also fits perfectly the description given by Obama during one of the more emotional portions of his speech: “Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system, where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law?”

The Andrade and Vaca families watching President Obama addressing the countryBolivian families watching Obama for Dan Roberts piece
The Andrade and Vaca families watching President Obama addressing the countryBolivian families watching Obama for Dan Roberts piece Photograph: Zacarias Garcia for the Guardian/Zacarias Garcia

For 14 years, this single mother who trained as a teacher in Bolivia has done the only work she can find without papers. Often, from 6am to 10 or 11 at night, she has been out cleaning the houses of Washington’s policymakers and public servants – usually three houses a day, on her own.

Read the full story here.

The president is due to speak in Las Vegas beginning in a couple hours. Astrid Silva is in the house:

Obama almost forgets the Barackberry
Here’s Guardian social media editor Kayla Epstein (@KaylaEpstein):

US President Barack Obama, most powerful man in the world, was on his way to his major immigration speech in Las Vegas when he succumbed to the most relatable of human errors:

Wait a minute...
Wait a minute... Photograph: YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images

He forgot his Blackberry in the house right before heading off on a big trip, and everyone had to wait while he ran back in and got it.

BRB
BRB Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Got it!
Got it! Photograph: LARRY DOWNING/Reuters

The Economist, agreeing with Jonathan Chait and others, thinks the fix here is worse than the original problem. “Historians may pinpoint this TV address as the moment that hopes for substantial bipartisan co-operation faded,” the editors write:

Yet at the same time the president risks breaking the doctor’s oath: first, do no harm. The political system—indeed the social contract that binds America’s leaders and an unhappy, anxious electorate—is already in fragile shape. The president has spotted a real ill in the way that immigration laws function. But his proposed cure is unprecedented in its radicalism and scope. He seems set to grant legal papers to millions of foreigners, notably the parents of children who are citizens or legal residents. The reaction from opponents in Congress and the country may leave deep scars.

The full piece is here. Do you agree?

Earlier we mentioned how when the CBO scored the 2013 Senate bill it estimated $200bn in deficit savings over 20 years. That bill would have provided a path to citizenship for some migrants and allowed others to apply immediately for work permits, while throwing another $40bn or so at border security.

Obama’s actions of last night were not as broad, but a report by the Center for American Progress, “The Fiscal Benefits of Temporary Work Permits,” estimates that new payroll tax receipts alone – not counting income taxes or other taxes – will amount to $22.6bn over five years:

Can Obama's executive actions be undone?

The Guardian’s Paul Lewis and Alan Yuhas report on whether or how the president’s actions on immigration announced last night might be undone. One scenario is a Republican president after 2016 simply reversing the changes. But it appears there’s slim chance for a rollback meanwhile:

There are three arenas where Republican opponents could undermine or even unravel the schemes through which the president plans to protect undocumented migrants: the courts, the legislature and – depending on who wins the next presidential election – the White House.

Most immigration experts believe Obama’s intervention this week is not immune from challenge, but has a good chance of surviving. [...]

The truth is that Republicans can push as hard as they want – up to and including a move to impeach the president – and it still might not be enough. Conversely, trenchant retaliation from Republicans could do a great deal to damage the party’s brand.

Read the full piece here.

Updated

Obama won Hispanic and Latino voters by 40 points in 2012. Last night Hillary Clinton released a statement of support for the president’s executive actions and accusing Congress of an abdication of responsibility.

But is this “cold hard fact” indeed so?

Polling analyst Harry Enten and others have questioned the electoral math:

All told, it would seem that only about 1.7 million new Latino voters would be added if undocumented immigrants were granted citizenship. Nationally, this would be a net of about 775,000 votes. This would increase Obama’s vote margin, but not to 7pt; it would only go up to about 4.4pt – in other words, half a point from where it actually was in November 2012. [...]

The amount this would shift individual states in elections is debatable. Take Nevada, where, at last count, there were 190,000 undocumented immigrants – the highest percentage of any state population. Most of them are Latino. Apply the same math we did above, Obama would have gained about 17,000 votes. It would have increased his state margin of victory by 1.4pt. That’s not nothing, but we’re talking about the state with the largest percentage undocumented immigrants.

Read the full piece here. The key may not be new voters but a strengthened core of voters.

US President Barack Obama walks from the residence to the West Wing of the White House, shortly before departing the South Lawn by Marine One, in Washington DC, USA, 21 November 2014.
US President Barack Obama walks from the residence to the West Wing of the White House, shortly before departing the South Lawn by Marine One, in Washington DC, USA, 21 November 2014. Photograph: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA

Impeachment: not on the table, says Alabama’s Jeff Sessions (who unrelatedly is apparently being challenged in his move toward the chairmanship of the Senate budget committee):

Before departing for Las Vegas, president Obama and senior Administration officials met with faith, civil rights, labor, and Latino leaders to talk immigration, according to a White House pool report, which continues:

The President thanked the leaders for their dedication to immigration reform and looks forward to working together in the future to fully implement his actions as well as passing commonsense immigration reform. The leaders praised the President’s bold and decisive executive actions that will uphold our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

If you’re still catching up on what the president said last night and how it played out, we’d refer you to Guardian Washington correspondent Paul Lewis’ news report.

“Barack Obama used a heartfelt televised address to the nation on Thursday to explain his decision to enact sweeping immigration reforms that will shield from deportation almost five million people currently living in the country illegally,” Paul writes:

In an emotional broadcast from the White House, the president unveiled controversial executive action that will make millions of undocumented migrants eligible to live and work in what Obama described as “a nation of immigrants”.

He urged America to show compassion to newcomers who entered the country illegally but have worked hard and put down roots yet still “see little option but to remain in the shadows or risk their families being torn apart”.

“Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law?” he asked. “Are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms?”

Read the full report here.

President Obama today is scheduled to meet in Las Vegas with Astrid Silva, a student whose story he told in his primetime address Thursday.

The Guardian’s Rory Carroll spoke with Silva after Obama’s speech last night. Silva described what the new executive actions meant for her and her family: ‘Just to know that they are going to be OK ... I don’t have to be scared that they’re going to get deported.’

Astrid Silva, the young woman mentioned in Obama’s landmark immigration speech, was brought to the United States when she was four years old.

Here’s what the president said about Silva:

Tomorrow, I’ll travel to Las Vegas and meet with some of these students, including a young woman named Astrid Silva. Astrid was brought to America when she was four years old. Her only possessions were a cross, her doll, and the frilly dress she had on. When she started school, she didn’t speak any English. She caught up to the other kids by reading newspapers and watching PBS, and became a good student. Her father worked in landscaping. Her mother cleaned other people’s homes. They wouldn’t let Astrid apply to a technology magnet school for fear the paperwork would out her as an undocumented immigrant – so she applied behind their back and got in. Still, she mostly lived in the shadows – until her grandmother, who visited every year from Mexico, passed away, and she couldn’t travel to the funeral without risk of being found out and deported. It was around that time she decided to begin advocating for herself and others like her, and today, Astrid Silva is a college student working on her third degree.

The president has had a bit of a false start as he embarks for Las Vegas, according to a White House pool report.

The president forgot his Blackberry. “Almost immediately, he got off helicopter -- as his aides were headed across lawn to Marine One,” the pool reporter narrates. Then Obama...

went back into the White House through the Diplomatic Room doors telling reporters: “I forgot something”

After returning, he said: “Didn’t you guys ever forget something?” After some shouted questions asking what he forgotten, he held up his his phone. “My BlackBerry” he said as he returned to Marine One.

Who’s the current “body man”? It used to be Reggie Love. This wouldn’t happen on Reggie Love’s watch. “Obama Still Hasn’t Replaced Reggie Love,” New York magazine reported in Feburary 2012.

President Barack Obama made some notable omissions in his remarks about the unilateral actions he’s taking on immigration, the AP reports in a fact check of the president’s claims on immigration. Here’s the top of a new AP “look at Obama’s statements Thursday and how they compare with the facts”:

OBAMA: “It does not grant citizenship, or the right to stay here permanently, or offer the same benefits that citizens receive. Only Congress can do that. All we’re saying is we’re not going to deport you.”

THE FACTS: He’s saying, and doing, more than that. The changes also will make those covered eligible for work permits, allowing them to be employed in the country legally and compete with citizens and legal residents for better-paying jobs.

OBAMA: “Although this summer, there was a brief spike in unaccompanied children being apprehended at our border, the number of such children is now actually lower than it’s been in nearly two years.”

THE FACTS: The numbers certainly surged this year, but it was more than a “brief spike.” The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border has been on the rise since the 2011 budget year. That year about 16,000 children were found crossing the border alone. In 2012, the Border Patrol reported more than 24,000 children, followed by more than 38,800 in 2013. In the past budget year, more than 68,361 children were apprehended.

Read the full piece here. There are two more checked facts where those came from.

Republicans sue over health care, may add immigration

House Republicans are bringing a lawsuit over the president’s health care law, according to an Associated Press snap report. They’ve threatened to add an immigration component to the lawsuit, the New York Times reports:

[The suit] has been filed against the secretaries of the Health and Human Services and Treasury Departments ...[It] focuses on two crucial aspects of the way the administration has put the Affordable Care Act into effect.

The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties. (Larger companies are defined as those with 50 or more employees.) [...]

The suit also challenges what it says is President Obama’s unlawful giveaway of roughly $175 billion to insurance companies under the law.

Read the full piece here. Republicans had difficulty finding a lawyer to take the case, the Times says. And Democrats have noted it’s ironic they are in effect suing the president for postponing implementation of a law they oppose.

Updated

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2013 Senate immigration reform bill would have decreased federal deficits by about $200bn over the next 10 years and goosed GDP. That’s in part because a portion of the 11-12m undocumented migrants in the country would start paying taxes.

That’s not the headline treatment Obama’s immigration announcement gets in the New York Post this morning. Instead the Post picks up on the Republican argument that finding ways to incorporate some of the migrants who are already here will bring a wave of new migrants (a concern not supported by data showing that migrant arrivals have been falling):

Boehner: Obama 'damaging the presidency'

House speaker John Boehner accused President Barack Obama on Friday of “undermining the rule of law” and “placing lives at risk” with executive actions announced the night before to change how immigration laws are enforced.

Boehner spoke at a news conference on the morning after the president announced actions that would protect an estimated five million undocumented migrants in the United States from deportation and make many eligible for work permits.

“The president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek,” Boehner said. “And as I told the president yesterday, he’s damaging the presidency itself.”

Republican leaders grew more assertive in their warnings to the president not to act on immigration after the party’s victories in the midterm elections last month. Both Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader, said unilateral action by the president on immigration would “poison the well.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) denounces the executive order on immigration made by U.S. President Barack Obama during a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington November 21, 2014.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) denounces the executive order on immigration made by U.S. President Barack Obama during a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington November 21, 2014. Photograph: JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS

On Thursday the White House circulated an opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel finding that the new immigration rules did not exceed the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration law. Obama said Thursday that he was taking “the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican Presidents before me.”

Republicans have said they would block funding for the new measures, but it was unclear how they could do so. The Republican chairman of the House appropriations committee has raised questions about the constitutionality of action through a spending bill.

“We’re looking at the options that are available to us,” Boehner said. “I will say to you: the House will in fact act.’

Good morning and welcome to our live blog coverage of a major push by Barack Obama to sell an immigration reform package he announced last night – and of Republicans’ outraged reaction.

The outrage part is in full thrust this morning, as House speaker John Boehner convened a news conference to accuse the president of “deliberately sabotaging any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms” and “damaging the presidency”. Asked whether House Republicans were not partly at fault for having failed to act on immigration, Boehner said that that was the president’s fault, too.

Obama “created an environment where the members would not trust him”, Boehner said. “I warned the president over and over.”

The main event today is a big speech by the president in Las Vegas, at a high school where he urged comprehensive immigration reform in a January 2013 address. It’s expected to be a triumphant talk before an extremely friendly crowd. Obama is scheduled to leave Washington this morning and speak at Del Sol high school at about 4pm ET.

We’ll review the executive actions announced Thursday night, look at how life in the United States is changing for undocumented migrants, sample the politics and more.

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