President Obama, in a recent speech in one of the states of USA challenged the Congress and defended his executive action of last month, with an effort to enlist support for the order. He defended his plan, much to the chagrin of the congressional Republicans, who stated that he lacked the authority to put such large-scale immigration policy without the required legislative action. 20 states have so far joined a lawsuit, however, challenging the President’s actions.

President Obama recapitulated his challenge to the Congress, which has till now failed to enact a comprehensive immigration reform. He stated that when members of the Congress questioned him on his authority to do that he had only one answer – yes, and that was to pass a bill. He reiterated that nobody was going to have a path to actual citizenship until a law was passed.

All these remarks were delivered at a two-year old immigrant community center in the nation’s country music capital – Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is fast emerging as one of the speediest growing migrant populations in USA, and that is why President Obama chose to make his speech there. 12 per cent of the city’s population is made up of immigrants; this is a diverse group that includes Hispanic immigrants as well as a large number of others – Kurdish, Somali and Burmese refugees. It is estimated that around 50,000 immigrants living in the city do not have legal status.