Maria Cristina Garcia, an expert on the issue of immigration reform and Professor of History at Cornell University, says that if President Obama bypasses Congress with executive orders on immigration reform, he is not alone. U.S. presidents have often acted without congressional mandate.

Garcia says:

“In immigration matters, presidents have often acted unilaterally without Congressional mandate.

“The decision to ‘parole’ certain groups into the United States during the Cold War, outside of Congress’s established immigration quotas, raised little objection until Congress passed the 1980 Refugee Act to put limits on this executive authority. Even then, Congress understood the humanitarian impulse that drove the president's unilateralism.

“In today’s political climate one has to wonder if that humanitarian impulse would be considered impeachable.”