Aide: Obama to make 'aggressive sales job' on immigration plan
President Obama is planning a "very aggressive sales job" to promote his new immigration rules and to urge Congress to pass a new immigration law, a top aide said Friday.
The marketing plan includes events around the country — starting Friday in Las Vegas — as well as appearances on both traditional and social media, said White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer.
"We will be making the case about what we did, and the need for Congress to finish the job," Pfeiffer said.
In a prime-time White House speech on Thursday, Obama outlined a plan to shield 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Republicans denounced Obama's announcement as an abuse of presidential power and vowed to fight it in court and in Congress.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday that Obama's plan will only encourage more illegal migration and added that "the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House GOP majority should have acted on immigration already: "Republicans continue to scramble for excuses for their own failure of leadership."
Obama's sales job starts Friday with an appearance at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, where he "will deliver remarks on the new steps he will be taking within his executive authority on immigration," according to the White House schedule.
In the days ahead, Obama will give a Sunday show interview to ABC's This Week and speak an at event Tuesday in Chicago.
In the long term, Obama will go across the country to "push Congress" to act on an overall immigration bill that in many ways would supersede Obama's actions.
Those presidential actions allow undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to register with the federal government. If approved, they receive a three-year protection from any deportation.
The plan would also expand the pool of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children who are eligible for protected status.
Del Sol High School in Las Vegas is the same place where, in early 2013, Obama pledged support for a congressional immigration bill. The Democratic-run Senate passed a plan with some Republican support, but the GOP-run House refused to follow suit.
The Senate bill included a "pathway to citizenship" for the more than 11 million migrants who are in the United States illegally. Republicans opposed the pathway, calling it "amnesty" — the same phrase they used to described Obama's new plan.