The Obama administration announced Friday that it will stop deporting law-abiding young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and will instead begin granting them work permits.
The new policy will achieve many of the goals of the DREAM Act, stalled legislation that would establish a path to citizenship for undocumented young people who have attended college or served in the military.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano noted, however, that this new policy would not take care of everything.
"I continue to urge Congress to pass the DREAM Act and re-examine our immigration system as a whole," Napolitano said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, applauded the policy change, calling it a "bold move" for the administration. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) decried the decision, calling it "yet another example of executive branch overreach" and "at best unwise and possibly illegal," respectively.
Below, a roundup of other politicians' reactions to the new policy:
