Obama's immigration plan: 'Deport felons, not families'

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will order immigration officers to deport "felons not families" as he wields executive power to shield five million undocumented immigrants in the most sweeping overhaul of the immigration system in decades.

Obama will reject claims he is offering a free pass to undocumented immigrants and argue that "the real amnesty" would be leaving a broken system as it is now, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.

"Mass amnesty would be unfair. Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I'm describing is accountability -- a commonsense, middle ground approach," Obama will say.

"If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you're a criminal, you'll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up."

Obama will lay out changes he is making to immigration laws without the consent of Congress. A key element of his plan is to instruct immigration authorities to prioritize expulsion action against gang members, felons and suspected terrorists rather than law abiding undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and residents and others, senior administration officials said.

The changes will offer those who qualify the chance to stay temporarily in the country for three years, as long as they pass background checks and pay back taxes. But they will not be offered a path to eventual citizenship or be eligible for federal benefits or health care programs. And, in theory, the measures could be reversed by a future president.

Republicans are slamming Obama's use of executive authority as a mammoth presidential power grab. But aides said the President was tired of waiting to act and felt compelled to go it alone because House Republicans refuse to vote on a bill to fix the broken immigration system that cleared the Senate more than 500 days ago.

"Instead of working together to fix our broken immigration system, the President says he's acting on his own," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said in a YouTube video released before the president's speech. "The President has said before, that he's not king and he's not an emperor. But he's sure acting like one."

But Obama will say he is acting in a manner consistent with action taken by every Republican and every Democratic president in half a century.

"To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill."

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