Updated 2:25 p.m. - The Obama administration announced on Friday that it would no longer seek the deportation of most young illegal immigrants, and would instead allow them to apply for work permits, a significant policy shift with potentially major electoral implications.

The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria.

The decision was intended to make America's immigration system "more fair, more efficient and more just," President Obama said in an afternoon statement in the Rose Garden.


"They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants, and oftentimes had no idea they were undocumented until they applied for a job," the president said. "They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds...in every single way but one: on paper."

President Obama, visibly angry, scolded a reporter at the White House Rose Garden today after he was interrupted while announcing a new immigration policy.

“The next time I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask a question,” Obama said.

The reporter who interrupted the president was the Daily Caller’s Neil Munro, who, according to TPM’s Brian Beutler (who was also in attendance) identified himself as an immigrant and then walked off.

2:20 PM EDT, Friday June 15, 2012
Report: Steve King Will Sue Over New Obama Immigration Policy

Rep. Steve King plans to sue the Obama administration over its decision to stop deporting illegal immigrants under 30 who entered the U.S. as children, the Iowa Republican said Friday.

King called into Mike Huckabee’s radio program to discuss his plan to sue, according to the Daily Caller. King’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.

In a statement earlier Friday, King accused Obama of “planning to usurpthe Constitutional authority of the United States Congress and grant amnesty by edict to 1 million illegal aliens.”

The DREAM Act, King said, “has been rejected by Congress, and yet President Obama has decided that he will move forward with it anyway.”