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The White House is really serious this time: President Obama will act to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants before the end of the year.
Obama had promised to take executive action on immigration by the end of the summer, but on Saturday he announced that he would delay the move until after the November elections.
The delay was a pretty bald-faced political move that administration officials blamed on vulnerable Senate Democrats, who believed that a move to unilaterally legalize immigrants would embolden conservatives, scare off independents and cost the party control of the chamber in 2015.
So on Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest went to great lengths to emphasize that this delay would be the last, and that Obama really, truly would sign an executive order on immigration before the clocks strike midnight on Dec. 31.
"That is a decision that he has made, and that is something that will occur," Earnest said.
The president's commitment to asking on this before the end of the year has not changed."
Obama's move to postpone the executive action has more or less enraged everybody. Immigration reform advocates feel betrayed, while Republicans argue it is even more disingenuous for Obama to circumvent Congress after voters have had the chance to register their disapproval at the ballot box.