Obama Announces Executive Action On Immigration

President Obama says he will take executive action on immigration, now that House Speaker John Boehner has said definitively that the House will not vote on immigration reform this year.

Speaking at an impromptu Rose Garden press conference yesterday, Obama said:

"So while I will continue to push House Republicans to drop the excuses and act –- and I hope their constituents will too -– America cannot wait forever for them to act. And that’s why, today, I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress. As a first step, I’m directing the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to move available and appropriate resources from our interior to the border."

That particular action is intended to help slow the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally, something Obama called "a humanitarian crisis."

Obama also plans to ask Congress for emergency funding to help control the influx of migrants, and for a change in law to allow immigration officials to speed up deportation proceedings of unaccompanied minors.

Jude Joffe-Block of Here & Now contributing station KJZZ in Phoenix joins host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the president's plans.