A Hint to Obama's Immigration Plan

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- President Obama plans to take executive action to fix what he calls America's broken immigration system and to protect the millions of immigrants living here illegally from deportation.

He may have given us a hint two and a half years ago of what he plans to do when he makes a nationwide address on Thursday (11/20) night.

In June of 2012, I asked President Obama in an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House, what his administration was working on regarding immigration reform.

Click on the video player to see his response.

Shortly after that interview, in July of 2012, the President's administration announced a new policy that curbed deportations for some immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children.

According to the Associated Press, the policy called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, has now granted two-year deportation reprieves and work permits to nearly 600,000 people.

Just about one year later, June of 2013, the U.S. Senate approved a major immigration overhaul bill that provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they met strict criteria.

However, the House has not acted on the Senate bill.

The White House has been vague about what the President plans to do, but as you'll recall in my interview with him, Mr. Obama said the U.S. needs to create a system where we stabilize the legal immigration system for workers in the San Joaquin Valley to entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley.

According to the AP, some experts and political analysts expect the President to extend current deportation protections to families of U.S. citizens or permanent residents much like President George H. W. Bush did in 1990.

This would not give legal status to millions, but offer temporary protection from being deported.

Those people impacted could also get a work permit or permission to work legally in the U.S.

Only Congress can grant permanent residence.

Whatever the President has planned, his plan to use executive orders to change, expand or modify immigration policy is already receiving harsh criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

You can watch a live stream of President Obama's address on immigration reform starting at 5pm Thursday on our website, abc30.com.

Here's the President's message about Thursday night's address: http://go.wh.gov/sRN9yZ