According the National Journals Major Garrett, who has great WH sources, Obama is planning on going big with his upcoming immigration executive action. The whole article is worth a read but below are the relevant excerpts:
Ever since, immigration groups on the left despaired over Obama's credulous paralysis. Protests ensued.
Not any longer. Obama told the groups what they had been dying to hear—that he was going to condemn House Republicans for inaction and set the most expansive legal course permissible to beef up border security, slow deportations of noncriminal aliens, and provide legal status to millions of undocumented workers—all by himself.
"He went from hanging back to calling the question and retaking the initiative," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice. "I kept thinking, 'Where has this guy been?' He's going on offense. He was a different guy. He was unplugged. After months of him and his team being angry with advocates for putting pressure on him to take executive action, it became clear he was no longer going to use the prospect of legislation to deflect attention and pressure from him."
Obama made it clear he would press his executive powers to the limit. He gave quiet credence to recommendations from La Raza and other immigration groups that between 5 million to 6 million adult illegal immigrants could be spared deportation under a similar form of deferred adjudication he ordered for the so-called Dreamers in June 2012.
Obama has now ordered the Homeland Security and Justice departments to find executive authorities that could enlarge that non-prosecutorial umbrella by a factor of 10. Senior officials also tell me Obama wants to see what he can do with executive power to provide temporary legal status to undocumented adults. And he will shift Immigration Control and Enforcement resources from the interior to the border to reduce deportations of those already here and to beef up defenses along the border.
"Things were getting ragged with some of the immigration groups," said Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. "Many of us had long drawn the conclusion the House Republicans were not going to budge. After Obama spoke, the vibe was, 'Wow. This is a very clear, very serious pivot.' "
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
Color me shocked. I thought he would take action, but it would be around the edges. For immigration advocates to be happy and shocked at his forcefulness means a lot, cause they're the part of his base thats been most willing to criticize him (see: Deporter in Chief).
If this reporting turns out to be true, it will be one of best political and substantive moves a President has ever done on his own. Or as Frank Sharry, one the advocates at the meeting said: "he'll go from Deporter in Chief to the Great Emancipator." That would be something.