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"FacebookPinterestDream Act Full.jpg\n\nIn a few minutes, President Obama is going to step into the Rose Garden and discuss a major change in immigration policy. The Department of Homeland Security announced this morning that, basically, the U.S. will stop deporting young illegal immigrants who came here as children, follow the law, and are either in school or served in the military. You may recognize this as the core of the DREAM Act, which mainstream Republicans generally deplore and which latino voters generally list as a top priority. In other words, this a ballsy power-play from Obama, attempting to satisfy a major demand of a crucial slice of the electorate\u2014while daring Romney to oppose it. Here's a roundup of responses from the front lines.\n\nFrom Arturo Vargas, ecutive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), whose conference both Obama and Romney will address next week:\n\nIt's a commendable action by DHS. But in listening to the briefing from administration officials, there also needs to be a measure of control in terms of reaction, because it's not a blanket granting of status to people under 30 who qualify. It is going to be something that's going to be administered on a case-by-case basis in the field. This isn't as though 800,000 young people are going to get some kind of document that says they're not deportable. It's going to mean that if they're caught up in a raid or something, or they end up being placed in deportation proceedings, there's now the discretion to say they're not deportable... It will be welcomed. Many had argued that this was within the discretion of the administration to do, and they'll say 'what took so long?' It was already obvious that congress was not willing to act on the DREAM Act. But overall, welcome. We'll see how it plays out.\n\n Contrast that insider's take with the reaction from Cesar Vargas (no relation), a DREAM Act advocate and himself a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who is now eligible for relief:\n\nWe're speechless. We've been working on this for so long. We've been on the streets; we've been on Capitol Hill; we've been in the state legislatures. It's a great feeling. But of course we want to make sure we're cautiously optimistic...I was just speaking to my brother-in-law and one of my sisters. They've never voted before. Just two or three days ago, they said 'Nah, I don't know if I'm gonna vote.' And they're usually Republicans. But I just spoke to them an they said, 'Obama has our vote.' [Latinos] are going to be inspired to go to the polls. Now he's given us a reason to fight for him.\n\n At the Faith and Freedom Conference, where many of the conservative elite are gathered at the moment, response was surprisingly nuanced. Here's RNC Chairman Reince Preibus:\n\nWell he's made a lot of promises that he hasn't kept. I think this president is all politics all the time, I think everything he does is politically motivated.\n\n And here's Gabe Flores, a conservative Latino student attending the conference, with a message that should be giving the Romney camp quite a bit of pause:\n\nI feel that [latinos] agree more with the Republican side of things, except for this huge issue which is really driving us away from the Republican Party. It's why we're so alienated. I really feel if Mitt Romney does pick Marco Rubio more Hispanics will look towards Mitt Romney, but until then I feel they'll stick straight towards Obama. He's the only one offering an option on immigration. Romney says over and over again that immigration is illegal, hence everyone who has been here should be deported and/or go to jail, which I do not agree on one bit, for the simple fact that I wouldn't be here. I go to college, I pay my tas, but my parents came here illegally. They're residents now, but I've had to suffer through what a lot of hispanic families have suffered through. Heartbreaking stories. I have mine, but I came through it and I'm a better subject for it. So it's a touchy subject.\n\n Rubio, long an advocate for some kind of action on the issue (and now in an awkward spot, we assume), for his part released this statement:\n\nThere is broad support for the idea that we should figure out a way to help kids who are undocumented through no fault of their own, but there is also broad consensus that it should be done in a way that does not encourage illegal immigration in the future. This is a difficult balance to strike, one that this new policy, imposed by ecutive order, will make harder to achieve in the long run. Today's announcement will be welcome news for many of these kids desperate for an answer, but it is a short term answer to a long term problem. And by once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long term one.\n\n And because it's Friday, and because he was standing there in the hallway, here's what Herman Cain had to say:\n\nThe devil is in the details. At this point, we haven't seen the details. My big question is, what are they going to do about a path to citizenship? Nobody knows the answer to that. So my reaction is, wait until we see the details, the devil is in the details, and if it does include a path to citizenship and it's just granting citizenship, I've got a problem with that, because you don't just give citizenship away.\n\n Read more on Death Race 2012\n\nSolved: \"USA Uses Sex to Control the World\"\n\nWar On Religion? What War On Religion?\n\nToday's Political Firestorm: Two Speeches and an Honorific\n\nChildren, Do Not Give the President Rabbit Ears\n\nFollow GQ Politics on Twitter for more updates from the campaign trail."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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