Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/417786
ByAliciaA.Caldwell The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama says he plans to help immigrants living illegally in the United States "get legal" without any action from Congress. And he prom- ises to curb a system that he describes as deport- ing immigrants improp- erly. But the White House is vague about the changes the president is expected to announce soon. What can Obama actu- ally do without the cooper- ation of Capitol Hill? Under current law, the president can direct immi- gration authorities to tem- porarily shield particular immigrants from deporta- tion and give them permis- sion to work in the coun- try legally. But the president cannot give immigrants living in the country illegally green cards, visas or just about any other path to a perma- nent legal immigration sta- tus. Only Congress has that authority, and so far law- makers have shown little interest in remodeling the country's complex legal im- migration system. Still, Obama's hands are not tied. Two years ago, he launched the Deferred Ac- tion for Childhood Arriv- als, or DACA, program that lets young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children stay in the country without fear of deportation for two years. So far, more than 610,000 have benefited from that program. The president can also allow some people living in the country illegally to "pa- role in place," during which time they can apply to live in the country legally. Once they receive permission to stay, they can later apply to change their immigration status and possibly win a green card. An immigrant who holds a green card is a legal permanent resident and can eventually apply to become a U.S. citizen. In the past, the "parole in place" designation has been limited to helping very small numbers of im- migrants stay in the United States, including spouses, parents and children of U.S. military personnel. A U.S. official who has been briefed on parts of the president's executive action plan said the admin- istration estimates that as many as 7 million immi- grants currently living in the country illegally could benefit. That group in- cludes parents of U.S. cit- izens and those young im- migrants already protected from deportation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity be- cause the official was not authorized to discuss the plan before the president's announcement. Obama's descriptions of what he plans came in a news conference and sep- arate television interview in September as the White House announced that he would not roll out any ex- ecutive immigration ac- tions until after the mid- term elections. The White House has de- clined to say what Obama meant by "be legal" or "get legal." The president earlier this month, on CBS' Face the Nation, said that he in- tended to "do what I can do through executive action," but he added, "It's not go- ing to be everything that needs to get done." The president said the current immigration sys- tem doesn't work and "we're deporting people that shouldn't be deported. We're not deporting folks that are dangerous and need to be deported." Yet those comments un- dermine statements of his own immigration enforce- ment agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which routinely highlights its efforts to find and de- port criminal immigrants. Internal ICE documents obtained by The Associated Press describe an agency ef- fort that "prioritizes identi- fying and removing crimi- nal" immigrants. The report notes that about 56 percent of the 315,943 immigrants sent home during the 2014 budget year that ended in September were criminals. Obama has not always made a case for broad ex- ecutive action, arguing in the past that his ability to act on his own was limited. In a February 2013 Google Hangout session, he was asked what he would do to ensure that more peo- ple were not deported. "The problem is that I'm presi- dent of the United States; I'm not the emperor of the United States," he said. "My job is to execute laws that are passed." But on Sunday, during a news conference in Bris- bane, Australia, he de- fended his decision to take matters into his own hands in the face of inaction in Congress. 'GET LEGAL' Obamaisfirmbutvagueon immigration executive action JACQUELYNMARTIN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS People rally for comprehensive immigration reform outside the White House on Nov. 7. By David A. Lieb The Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, MO. Mis- souri Gov. Jay Nixon de- clared a state of emergency Monday and activated the National Guard ahead of a grand jury decision about whether a white police of- ficer will be charged in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Nixon said the National Guard would assist state and local police in case the grand jury's decision leads to a resurgence of the civil unrest that occurred in the days immediately after the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. "All people in the St. Louis region deserve to feel safe in their commu- nities and to make their voices heard without fear of violence or intimida- tion," Nixon said in a writ- ten statement. There is no specific date for a grand jury decision to be revealed, and Nixon gave no indication that an announcement is immi- nent. But St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch has said that he expects the grand jury to reach a decision in mid-to-late No- vember. The U.S. Justice Depart- ment, which is conducting a separate investigation, has not said when its work will be completed. Before the shooting, Wil- son spotted Brown and a friend walking in the mid- dle of a street and told them to stop, but they did not. Ac- cording to a St. Louis Post- Dispatch report based on sources the newspaper did not identify, Wilson has told authorities he then re- alized Brown matched the description of a suspect in a theft minutes earlier at a convenience store. Wilson backed up his police vehicle and some sort of confronta- tion occurred before Brown was fatally shot. He was un- armed and some witnesses have said he had his hands up when he was killed. Brown's shooting stirred long-simmering racial ten- sions in the St. Louis sub- urb, where two-thirds of the residents are black but the police force is almost entirely white. Rioting and looting a day after the shoot- ing led police to respond to subsequent protests with a heavily armored presence that was widely criticized for continuing to escalate tensions. At times, protest- ers lobbed rocks and Molo- tov cocktails at police, who fired tear gas, smoke canis- ters and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse crowds. Nixon also declared a state of emergency in August and put the Missouri State Highway Patrol in charge of a unified local police com- mand. Eventually, Nixon ac- tivated the National Guard to provide security around the command center. This time, Nixon said the St. Louis County Po- lice Department would be in charge of a unified po- lice command in Ferguson. The St. Louis city police and Missouri State Highway Pa- trol will help. The governor did not in- dicate how many National Guard troops would be mo- bilized, instead leaving it to the state adjutant general to determine. Nixon said the National Guard would be available to carry out any requests made through the Highway Patrol to "protect life and property" and sup- port local authorities. If the Guard is able to provide se- curity at police and fire sta- tions, then more police offi- cers may be freed up to pa- trol the community, POLICE SHOOTING Mi ss ou ri g ov er no r declares emergency in Ferguson case By Ricardo Alonso- Zaldivar The Associated Press WASHINGTON HealthCare. gov got steady consumer in- terest and also hit a bump Monday, the first weekday of the new sign-up season under the president's health overhaul. Consumers trying to open their existing ac- counts on the website got this message off and on dur- ing the afternoon: "Health- Care.gov has a lot of visitors right now! We need you to wait here, so we can make sure there's enough room for you to have a good ex- perience on our site." At other times, this mes- sage was displayed: "We're busy making HealthCare. gov even better! Sorry you can't get what you need right now. Please come back and visit again later." Spokeswoman Lori Lodes said one problem was fixed and issues will be addressed as they arise. Other areas of the website were working normally, she added. In the past, a queueing feature has been used dur- ing periods of high volume to space out website visi- tors. It was unclear what Monday's issue involved. The administration said more than 1 million consum- ers visited HealthCare.gov this weekend, without the widespread technical prob- lems experienced last year. Health and Human Ser- vices Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said that more than 200,000 people dialed the federal call center. About 20,000 of those calls were to Spanish-speaking repre- sentatives. The administration says about 100,000 people sub- mitted applications for 2015 coverage, as of Satur- day, the first day of open en- rollment. That includes new and returning customers. Also, there were more than 500,000 success- ful logins to consumer ac- counts the first day. NEW SIGN-UP SEASON HealthCare.gov gets steady traffic By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON A new U.S.- Canada study says a key polar bear population fell nearly by half in the past decade, with scientists see- ing a dramatic increase in young cubs dying. Researchers chief ly blame shrinking sea ice from global warming. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and En- vironment Canada tagged and released polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea from 2001 to 2010. The bear population shrank to about 900 in 2010, down from about 1,600 in 2004. Study lead author Jeff Bromaghin said only two of 80 polar bear cubs the team tracked between 2004 and 2007 survived. Normally about half of cubs live. He thinks the cubs starved because there was a lack of summer sea ice and they couldn't get to seals. The study is in the jour- nal Ecological Applica- tions. 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