Obama: ‘We’ve Expanded My Authority’ Under Prosecutorial Discretion

President Obama said “we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action, and prosecutorial discretion” during a townhall meeting on Wednesday.

“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action, and prosecutorial discretion as far as we can legally, under the existing statute, the existing law” he stated.

Earlier, the president argued “what I’ve done is no different than what previous presidents have done.”

He continued by comparing the immigration reform push to the civil and women’s rights movements, saying “the one thing that I have to just say to everybody here, every major social movement, every bit of progress in this country, whether it’s been the workers’ rights movement, or the civil rights movement, or the women’s rights movement, every single bit of that progress has required us to fight, and to push, and you make progress, and then, you know, you don’t get everything right away, and then you push some more.”

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