--- title: Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says description: A top immigration expert disagreed with Republican arguments that President Obama's actions will encourage more illegal immigration. canonical: https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-21T21:46:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:17:32.189Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says og:description: A top immigration expert disagreed with Republican arguments that President Obama's actions will encourage more illegal immigration. og:url: https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta104b56f9bada5b9/69876a5a428a9e83a7cc58d4/obama-immigration4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Barack Obama Immigration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says twitter:description: A top immigration expert disagreed with Republican arguments that President Obama's actions will encourage more illegal immigration. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta104b56f9bada5b9/69876a5a428a9e83a7cc58d4/obama-immigration4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Nov 21, 2014 9:46 PM UTC  President Barack Obama signs two presidential memoranda associated with his actions on immigration in his office, on Air Force One as he arrives at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nov. 21, 2014. President Barack Obama signs two presidential memoranda associated with his actions on immigration in his office, on Air Force One as he arrives at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nov. 21, 2014. Carolyn Kaster—AP by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Nov 21, 2014 9:46 PM UTC House Speaker John Boehner is arguing that President Obama’s moves to defer deportations for up to five million undocumented immigrants will make illegal immigration worse, citing President Obama’s own past words to make the argument. But a top immigration expert disagreed, arguing that the causes of illegal immigration are more complex. Obama announced Thursday that he would allow millions of undocumented immigrant parents of U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident children who have been living in the country for at least five years to avoid deportation for three years if they pay back taxes and pass a criminal background check. Boehner said that will only encourage more people to try to cross the border. His office pointed to a [2010 Obama statement](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-comprehensive-immigration-reform) in which the President said that providing undocumented workers legal status “could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration.” “The action by the President yesterday will only encourage more people to come here illegally and put their lives at risk,” said Boehner. “We saw the humanitarian crisis on our border last summer—how horrific it was. Well next summer, it could be worse.” Boehner was referring to a surge in unaccompanied minors from October 2013 through September, when [over 68,000](http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children-2014) unaccompanied minors crossed the southwest border, a 77% increase over the previous year. (The number of children coming over has sharply declined in the past few months.) But Doris Meissner, the director of the Migration Policy Institute’s immigration policy work, said that Boehner’s criticism was off. Here’s what she told TIME: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/"},"headline":"Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says","datePublished":"2014-11-21T21:46:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:17:32.189Z","description":"A top immigration expert disagreed with Republican arguments that President Obama's actions will encourage more illegal immigration.","url":"https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/","keywords":["Immigration","Barack Obama","John Boehner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta104b56f9bada5b9/69876a5a428a9e83a7cc58d4/obama-immigration4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta104b56f9bada5b9/69876a5a428a9e83a7cc58d4/obama-immigration4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama Immigration","caption":"Barack Obama Immigration","creditText":"Carolyn Kaster—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3600239/obama-illegal-immigration-boehner-expert/","name":"Obama's Actions Won't Increase Illegal Immigration, Expert Says"}}]}] ```