--- title: On Immigration, Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' description: President Obama will tout his immigration action to pressure the GOP to "finish the job" by passing a reform bill, an adviser said. canonical: https://time.com/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-21T16:10:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:16:59.582Z article:section: Politics og:title: On Immigration, Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' og:description: President Obama will tout his immigration action to pressure the GOP to "finish the job" by passing a reform bill, an adviser said. og:url: https://time.com/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa61c300e3fa112/69876a2a5f570f561eb13b5d/barack-obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: On Immigration, Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' twitter:description: President Obama will tout his immigration action to pressure the GOP to "finish the job" by passing a reform bill, an adviser said. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa61c300e3fa112/69876a2a5f570f561eb13b5d/barack-obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' on Immigration  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 21, 2014 4:10 PM UTC  President Barack Obama announces executive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. President Barack Obama announces executive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address from the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014.Jim Bourg—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 21, 2014 4:10 PM UTC President Barack Obama will use his executive action on immigration to pressure Republicans to “finish the job” by passing a reform bill, White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer said Friday. At a _Christian Science Monitor_ breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, Pfeiffer was asked if Obama would tout his action in swing states to put pressure on Republicans. Pfeiffer didn’t answer directly, but he did say the administration “will be making the case about what we did and the need for Congress to finish the job.” He added that this would be an “incredibly important priority” in 2015. The remarks came two weeks after Democrats were routed in the midterms, losing control of the Senate. But Pfeiffer said that in contrast to an election season where Obama needed to protect Democratic candidates and “wasn’t able to be out there and make an argument,” he will now be freer to flaunt his plan, which [grants temporary legal status and work permits to almost five million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.](//time.com/3598182/immigration-reform-executive-actions-barack-obama-deportations/) Though advisers have suggested that Obama feels “liberated” now that midterms are over, Pfeiffer says he’s already looking ahead and planning for to 2016\. “A very important thing for him will be to be succeeded by a Democrat,” Pfeiffer said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/"},"headline":"Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' on Immigration","datePublished":"2014-11-21T16:10:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:16:59.582Z","description":"President feels 'liberated' now that midterms are over","url":"https://time.com/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/","keywords":["Immigration","Congress","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa61c300e3fa112/69876a2a5f570f561eb13b5d/barack-obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa61c300e3fa112/69876a2a5f570f561eb13b5d/barack-obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama","caption":"Barack Obama","creditText":"Jim Bourg—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/3599622/obama-immigration-pfeiffer-finish-job/","name":"Obama Will Pressure GOP to 'Finish the Job' on Immigration"}}]}] ```