President Obama stated recently that his recent executive actions that could grant millions of illegal immigrants temporary respite could motivate Republicans to work together with Democrats on the issue, but if they get into what he calls a “Nativist  trend” that can be seen in spurts, in the Republican party, there might not be much progress.

President Obama told reporters that if the view was that immigrants were intrinsically bad to the country or if the opinion was that 11 million immigrants could be deported regardless of the cost then he said that he rejected that view. Instead, he said that there was potential for working together on the issue, though he stated that Republicans had vowed to fight the recently announced executive actions when the new Congress returned next month.

Mr. Obama stated that the country had more resources, border police and money devoted to the borders than at any other time in the past several decades, and that the flow of illegal workers was about half of what it was, and lower than any other time since the 1970s’.

The President wanted to know whether his actions motivated the members of the Republican party to genuinely start believing that immigration was good for the country, and whether they would be willing to work once again with his administration and get a suitable piece of legislation successfully passed.