There is still a lot of uncertainty about exactly how the recently announced immigration order from Obama is going to benefits millions of immigrant applicants in the USA. Here are 3 things that you need to know about the immigration order:

1.  HOPE FOR PARENTS

Many parents of American citizens, who are themselves undocumented citizens will be allowed to stay and work in the United States legally. Estimates from reliable sources put the number of these undocumented immigrants at 3.3 million.

2. WHAT WILL CHANGE?

This is one thing that the Obama government is not ready to answer yet. But the administration has laid out a broad outline of what it intends to do: Many parents of American citizens, who are undocumented immigrants themselves, will be allowed to stay and work in the United States on a legal basis, so the immigration waiting game is proposed to end soon. Other areas of reform include extending the deferment of deportation date for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Although the President enacted a rule in the year 2012, permitting some of these children to avoid deportation, there were still age restrictions. Changing and enhancing this rule could mean that hundreds and thousands of more children could be brought into the fold.

3. NEW RESOURCES FOR THE BORDER

The executive order proposes to allocate more resources to equip the borders of the country, through which a lot of illegal infiltration has been taking place. By allocating more resources and manpower to secure the borders a lot of illegal entry can be curbed.

WILL ALL THIS BE ENOUGH?

Even under the broadest possible interpretation around 5 million undocumented immigrants are expected to gain access to relief under the order. That is far below, in fact, fewer than half of the 11.7 million currently believed to be in the United States. So the President’s action could be far less sweeping than a comprehensive bill passed with the help of the Congress.

Moreover, the entire measure could be temporary. The next President could just undo the orders and re-initiate deportations. But as the Congress is highly unlikely to pass a comprehensive bill Obama’s action may be just the best that activists can hope for.