(Politico) White House chief of staff Denis McDonough pledged to Latino lawmakers during a private meeting Thursday that President Barack Obama will take executive action on immigration before the holidays are over – an effort to soothe lawmakers furious about the administration's move to hold off on action.
The timeline was described by several members who attended the meeting and, substantively speaking, isn't different than the end-of-year pledge made by the White House when it moved to delay executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections.
But it gives at least some faith to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who have long pressured the Obama administration to ease deportations of undocumented immigrants – particularly as the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform on the Hill slowly collapsed over the last year.