Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a letter last week after President Obama unveiled a new immigration plan.
Tonight, President Obama will announce a series of executive actions to begin to fix our immigration system. The President views these actions as a first step toward the reform of the system, and continues to count on Congress for the more comprehensive reform that only changes in law can provide.
I support and recommended to the President each of the reforms to the immigration system that he will announce today. These recommendations were in turn the result of candid and extended consultations between me and the leadership of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as well as outside stakeholders. Along the way, I listened to members of the workforce who implement and enforce the law to hear their views. In my own view, any significant change in policy requires the insight of those who administer the system. I believe we have done that here.
The executive actions the President will announce will reform and improve the system in a number of respects. These executive actions are well within our legal authority to direct and implement.
Many of the actions the President will announce tonight must be implemented by you. Today I visited USCIS to explain those actions to the workforce there, and to others by video teleconference. Tomorrow, the leadership of CBP, ICE and USCIS and I will travel to McAllen Station, Texas, to review the executive actions with the workforce in South Texas. In the coming days, I or other leaders of this Department will also brief many of you around the country about the reforms, in person, by video teleconference or otherwise.
Thank you in advance for your attention to these new policies, and thank you again for all the good work you do for the American people.
Sincerely,
Jeh Charles Johnson
Secretary of Homeland Security
