Report: DHS Drafts Work-around On Immigration Actions

President Obama appears to have a backup plan in case federal courts keep blocking his 2014 executive actions to provide work permits for millions of illegal immigrants and allow them to avoid deportation, according to a leaked Department of Homeland Security document.

According to the internal memo, the administration is floating four options for dealing with an uncooperative court system -- including one giving so-called Employment Authorization Documents to "all individuals living in the United States," including illegal aliens, visa-overstayers, and H-1B guest-workers. A narrower option would give them only to those in the U.S. with unexpired non-immigrant visas.

"If this administration was half as determined to uphold immigration law as it is to undermining them, our borders would be secure, sanctuary cities would cease to exist, and criminal immigrants would be deported instead of being released back into our neighborhoods," said Texas GOP Sen. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "This memo shows the great lengths to which DHS officials have gone in order to defy a federal judge’s orders."

More