Nissan isn’t the only automaker with a real-life version of a vehicle from Gran Turismo 6. At the LA International Auto Show, Chevrolet rolled out its own: the Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo (VGT). The concept car was developed as part of the…
Whenever I wear a wristwatch to a long, boring meeting in a room without a clock, I’ll often catch others craning their necks to see the time. No one wants to be caught pulling their phone out, though it’s just as conspicuous to cock your head to the side trying to look at someone’s wrist. If you’d prefer to make it far harder on those around you, then why not get a timepiece that only you can read?
TokyoFlash always surprises us with innovative designs that are simultaneously beautiful and confusing. The most recent addition to the Kisai family is the Clone. This modern watch has a combination of matte surfaces with glossy details on a smoky lens behind which LEDs shine through. The strap is made of silicone, which means it will be comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. This charges via USB, which means you won’t have to worry about replacing batteries.
There are three display modes which includes turning, flashing, and animation mode. The first will have LEDs rotating around the clock face, highlighting three lines to indicate the hours and minutes. The lines will be in the same positioning as a normal clock. The second Flashing mode will simply flash the lines that indicate the hours and minutes at a glance. The final mode will illuminate all of the lights in a pattern, mainly for aesthetic effect. This watch will cost you $99, and comes in black or white with blue or green LEDs.
Available for purchase on TokyoFlash
[ The Kisai Clone gives your wristwatch a cryptically modern feel copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
The leader of the “smart home” industry doesn’t want to call it that any more. Nest CEO Tony Fadell says his company uses the term “Conscious Home” because its connected thermostat and smoke alarm create a two-way relationship with users where both help and teach each other. “We call it the conscious home. Smart is overused. It’s not smarter than… Read More
I went to lunch the other day with two friends, one a dentist and the other a beekeeper. The dentist’s children had grown up and moved out, and she was wondering what her life’s purpose would be in this new chapter. Different ideas were bandied around, but nothing sounded fulfilling to her. “I think in terms of bees,” said the beekeeper friend. “You’re a nurse bee, so you feel best when you are taking care of others every day.” Management of a mobile dental unit wasn’t close enough to her life’s purpose, the beekeeper warned. She’d either have to work in the mobile unit taking care of patients every day or figure out something else. She’d never be content as a manager. The dentist nodded, acknowledging that the beekeeper was right about her. Whoa. I wanted to know more. Here’s a definitive guide.
Are You A Queen Bee?
She’s the IT girl. Everything revolves around the queen, and there can be only one queen per hive. She’s the largest bee in the colony, and she’s long and lean — a stunner. If another female begins to rival her, the queen will use her stinger. She’s the MVP — the colony won’t survive without her. All the other bees attend to her, taking care of her every need. Feeding, grooming, everything. She busies herself making chemical scents to keep her faithful followers unified. Males long to mate with her. Mostly, she lays eggs. At her peak, she can lay more than 1,500 eggs a day at 30-second intervals.
A word to the wise: The queen bee is a hot momma for sure, but mature queens are less productive. After a couple of seasons they lose their je ne sais quoi. Queens quickly become yesterday’s news.
Are You A Worker Bee?
Do you serve others? Perhaps your purpose in life is housekeeper, nursemaid, construction worker, grocer, undertaker or guard. You take your job seriously. You relish doing things for the good of others, and you enjoy perfecting your skill. Say you’re a nursemaid bee. You’re only fulfilled taking care of the young, the sick, the weak or the infirm. Take that purpose away and you’re lost. If you’re a construction worker bee, you make up plans in your head, you are resourceful and dedicated to the physical aspects of building. You like heavy lifting. When the work day is done, you tend to pick up handiwork at home. The Undertaker knows what needs to be done with fallen colleagues, knows how to tend to logistics, takes care of unpleasant tasks. A responsible, solemn gal who feels good about herself for the care she puts into her important work. Same for the Housekeeper, Guard and Grocer. These are the school cafeteria ladies and front desk clerks, the laundress, the cook and the flight attendant. Happy to serve. Love being a part of the community.
Most bees are worker bees. It’s a meaningful life, and workers are, for the most part, content with their place in the colony. Workers have stingers, are they are prepared to defend their homeland. They are willing to give their life for the cause — and if they sting a mammal that’s what’s going to happen.
After a time doing their jobs, worker bees become foragers, or scout bees. They have pollen baskets on their hind legs to carry back the pollen they slurp up from flowers. They add their bounty to the pot, from which the honeycomb is created. There are thousands of scouts in a colony. If you’re a scout, you are happiest when you are out exploring. It gives meaning and purpose to your life. You’re also experienced enough in life to acknowledge your personal good fortune and you are proud to have the wherewithal to be able to contribute to the community chest. There are enough of your type that you are, in fact, replaceable, but how fortunate for society that there are so many toilers and kind souls who like to give back.
Are you a Drone?
In bee world, all males are drones, displaying large eyes and a barrel-shaped figure. There are far fewer males in a colony than females, and that’s a good thing, because drones are not cut out for working. They don’t have wax-producing glands, so they can’t help build the honeycomb. They have no stinger, so they can’t defend the hive. They don’t even forage. They live for the sole purpose of mating. No kidding. Their life’s work is to mate with the queen, the only one of the thousands of females around that has fully developed ovaries. It’s the highlight of their time on earth, and life ends after the big deed.
You know you’re a drone if you only live to mate with the highest of VIPs and contribute nothing tangible to society. You’re the pot-belly couch potato who hogs the remote. Everyone else has to pick up your tab. It’s unnerving that you don’t do chores, but your big eyes are attractive to the ladies, and, hey, life would not be possible without you.
Jennifer Huculak and her husband Darren Kimmel of Saskatchewan, Canada went to Hawaii for a beach vacation in October 2013. At the time, Huculak was six months pregnant. Prior to the trip, the mom-to-be received permission from her doctor and purchased travel insurance from Blue Cross, CTV News reports.
But just two days into the vacation, Huculak’s water broke. She was airlifted from Maui to a hospital in Honolulu, where she had to remain on bed rest for six weeks, The Toronto Sun reports. Huculak delivered her daughter Reece nine weeks early via emergency C-section on December 10, and the baby girl spent her first two months in the NICU.
At the end of their medical ordeal, Huculak and Kimmel were finally able to return home to Canada with their healthy baby girl. But they were also left with an astounding $950,000 medical bill that Blue Cross is still refusing cover.
“We thought we had done everything right,” Huculak told CBC. “We thought we had covered all avenues and we thought we were covered. We thought we were safe to go.”
According to CTV, Blue Cross wrote the couple a letter stating that they were not eligible for coverage because Huculak had been “treated for a high-risk pregnancy in the six months prior to departure.” But the mom said she did not have a high-risk pregnancy, only a bladder infection which led to bleeding. Huculak’s doctor in Saskatchewan wrote to Blue Cross to explain that the bladder infection did not cause her early labor, but the insurance company still denied coverage.
Huculak told The Toronto Sun that she never would have traveled if she had any reason to believe there were medical risks. “Anybody in their right mind doesn’t risk their life, their unborn baby’s life to go on a vacation.”
Facing an almost $1 million bill, the family is currently considering declaring bankruptcy. “It makes you sick to your stomach,” Huculak told CTV Saskatoon. “Who can pay a million-dollar medical bill? Who can afford that?”
Still, the Huculak and Kimmel are filled with love and gratitude for their daughter Reece. “She’s our world. She’s a perfectly healthy little baby,” the mom told The Canadian Press. “It’s been a very stressful year. I think what keeps us going every day is this beautiful little girl that we have.”
H/T Raw Story
In the previous part of this series, I showed you how to create a one-page business plan that helps you launch. To ensure the success of your business, you must ask the fundamental question of “what do people want?”, before you start building your products. In this post, I will help you create a design process which will guide you to building a profitable business around your products.
As a designer, designing and developing a product is the most crucial part of your business. Many designers struggle to create products that establish a sustainable demand among their customers. Some designers focus on only making beautiful products and hope that this alone will help them sell repeatedly in the long run. Having a great product is important, but it’s not enough. You need to think of creating an ecosystem around your product that will ensure the success of your business in the long run. So what are the high-level things that you as a designer must consider during your product design and development phase in order to build your business?
1. What problem are you solving with your product? And, how are you validating it?
Every product must solve a problem and serve a purpose. Even an art piece must intrigue, excite, question or evoke emotions in its viewer. It is important to clearly state your ideal customer’s problem and how your product aims to solve it. If you have a product in mind that you would like to design, talk to your prospective customers to clearly understand how your product can help them with their struggles. Let’s say you are a home goods designers looking to create textiles with a clean and minimal look. You can ask your customers the following questions:
a. What is your problem around your existing home textiles? They may answer e.g. “I would like materials that are naturally-dyed and are easy to wash” or “I would like to find a throw larger than the standard 70 inches by 70 inches”.
b. What do you currently use? What do you like and dislike about existing options? What is left to be desired? (This will help you as a designer to research your competition and how you can make your products stand out.)
c. What prices do you currently pay and how much more are you willing to pay if you find exactly what you are looking for?
2. How is your product unique?
First and foremost, your product must aesthetically look and feel different from your competition. A great example of this is Rifle Paper Co. which launched vintage inspired stationery and printed paper products at a time when the minimally-designed letterpress stationery was abundant. Anna and Nathan Bond looked to fill a gap in the market for whimsical printed paper products with Anna’s handpainted illustrations. Their original illustrations have been very popular with retailers and customers all over the world.
Taking it one step further, you must ensure longevity and your continued uniqueness. This involves really thinking through every aspect of your product from visual design and sourcing to care and added value around your product. You must think of your product beyond the physical object. The object itself is often not unique enough in today’s competitive market. This means that you need to plan for providing your customers a complete stellar experience around the purchase and use of your product. For example, you may consider providing lifetime repair service for free, or you may provide your customers with ideas on how to use your product beyond its obvious use, or you may give them aspirational examples on how to enhance their home or personal style using your product. Make sure that whatever you promise them as their experience of purchasing from you, your business is able to deliver on it consistently.
3. How is the feedback loop integrated in your product development?
Once your product is out in the hands of your customers, your job is far from over. You need to take their feedback and continuously improve your product. Everlane is a great example of integrating feedback in their product development process. The company releases a limited amount of their clothing designs. Then they gather feedback from their customers as soon the designs are released and incorporate this feedback into the next round of their production. Everlane continues to do this iterative design-production until their product is perfected.
Designing and producing a product can be challenging, but it is an extremely rewarding process for your business and your creativity. It should be viewed as a continuous cycle which, if done right, will help you stay ahead of your competition. I would love to know where you are in this process and which pieces you struggle with the most? Feel free to share and leave a comment below.
In the next part of this series, I’ll share effective marketing strategies for the launch phase of your business. Stay tuned.
When most people think of social workers they don’t normally think of wealth or riches. In fact, if they do think of money at all it’s usually in the not-making-any sort of way.
It’s an unfortunate association, but the profession is often considered to be one of the most underpaid that exists. I say unfortunate because although the career path is lauded as a noble one, the typical correlating salary is less than prestigious.
Paradoxically, much of the propaganda about low wages is perpetuated by the do-gooders themselves. Social workers often make statements like, “We don’t do this for the money,” and “If you want to get rich you’re in the wrong profession,” turning what’s meant to be an affirmation of benevolence into a taboo of affluence.
Sadly, for many social workers this dichotomy often leads to burnout, disillusionment, and the search for a less fulfilling but more lucrative life path.
The What Ifs
But what if things were different?
What if to be a social worker meant that not only did you get to help people but you also got to live a fabulously lavish life if you chose to?
What if the pay range for social workers was equal to that of doctors, lawyers, or the highest paid executives?
What if social workers were armed with the knowledge of how to distill and package their unique brand of service and sold it on the open market and what if there was no stigma around any of these options?
The Move Is On
With proponents like Tim Ferris and his 4-Hour Work Week and the rise of the solopreneur, people from all walks of life have found freedom in the ability to offer products and services online; often receiving tremendous financial rewards in return. And while social workers themselves have been slower to this gold rush of free enterprise than most, the opportunity remains and is growing for these skilled professionals to profit from the momentum created.
In my opinion, if there’s any group of people that need to be rich its social workers. And though some social workers may argue for the virtues of sacrifice over wealth, there are at least five very good reasons why, for social workers, the option to be rich is an absolute necessity.
1. The more money they have, the more people they can help.
Social workers are known for their service to humanity. In fact, so associated are they with this activity that many people who find themselves in service positions often ascribe to themselves the professional title sans the qualification.
Service for the social worker is not merely a job function, it’s a routine practice. They’re often found working “in the trenches” with clients and agencies, assessing needs and strategizing the best plans of action. But often the impetus for service is stifled because of a general lack of organizational resources and/or an ignorance of how to maximize the existing ones.
However, when social workers are rich they use their knowledge of wealth to leverage more resources, support more causes, and help more people; help which their clients, in turn, pass on to their circles of influence and networks.
2. Social workers need to be able to afford to take care of their mental and emotional health.
The profession of social work comes with its fair share of stress and fatigue. So legendary is this phenomenon that there exist entire journals, websites, and movements devoted to the importance and practice of self-care and maintenance.
However, while social workers are well aware of these maintenance tools, far too many of them don’t take the time or spend the money to invest in the counseling, hobbies, and vacations that they should primarily because they complain of having neither the time nor the money to do so!
Oh, the irony.
When carers don’t take care of themselves they do a lousy job of caring for others, and then you’ve defeated your purpose. But without the fear of not having enough money hanging over their heads, social workers are free to hire that coach, take that hobby class, book that three-week trip to Cancun, and splurge on that luxury spa treatment with no regrets. Not only will they be better functioning helpers, they’ll be better equipped to help their clients to function better too.
3. When social workers are empowered, they empower their clients.
It’s a skill that social workers are expected to possess — and that is being able to empower their clients to higher levels of functioning.
But here’s the kicker; they can’t empower their clients in the ways of wealth if they’re not empowered themselves. It’s no secret that many social workers work with people and in environments which are economically challenged. This lack of financial resources is often the root of more serious problems (such as access to healthcare, quality education, and transportation services) that also require money to address.
However, because most social workers have not learned the principles of wealth creation, money management and investing, it’s unlikely that, when it comes to money, they’ll be able to offer their clients much more than the referrals to the traditional welfare resources that commonly exist.
If we consider the efforts of Brene Brown, Suzy Orman and Steadman Graham — all trained social workers — then it’s easy to see the massive impact social workers can make in the lives of others when they’re financially empowered. Now imagine that level of impact from social workers on a global scale. What an empowered world it would be!
4. Social workers bring a unique set of skills and services to the marketplace that are preventative, mitigating, and healing.
Social work interconnects with various industries such as healthcare, service, and education. These and other intersecting industries represent billions of dollars in revenue annually. They also represent major opportunities for social workers to fill the needs represented within their scope.
With skills such as assessment, problem-solving, coping, relationship improvement, and capacity building, social workers fill significant gaps within the marketplace providing services that are preventative, mitigating and healing. And with the evolution, we are the ones engineering new currency of relationship.
5. When money is not their concern, they can focus on other critical issues.
What problems do social workers focus on when money is not their issue? Anything else that they need to.
Consider this: you don’t see Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos stressed out about money — neither do they spend time hankering for resources. Instead, these multimillionaires spend their time and energy seeking to engineer some of the most significant improvements of this generation.
It’s because money is not their concern that they’re able to focus their attention on such epic ideas and strategies — and it’s because social workers are concerned about not having enough money that they do not — not in any systematic way, at least.
But when money — or the lack of it — is no longer a primary concern for the social worker, the question is no longer, “Can we afford this solution,” but, “Which viable solution will we choose?”
The bottom line is this: social workers need to be rich — and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be. Perhaps as wealth becomes a reality for more of these trained professionals, their ability to enrich the lives of others will be expanded as well.
This story was originally published on Quarterlette.com
By: Ali Slous
As children, we experience “change” as a routine part of life. Each year, we are introduced to a new grade (or a new school altogether), different teachers, classes, subjects, hobbies and the potential to learn new things, make new friends, and reinvent ourselves.
Between sixth and eighth grade alone, I went from Pumas, Doc Martens, flannel shirts and ripped jeans (grunge) to oversized Guess t-shirts, “sagging” jeans, nameplate necklaces and hoop earrings (hip-hop).
Despite the consistency with which we experience change as young people, these transitions can still bring up our innate fears and insecurities. We wonder: Will people like me? Will I get good grades? What should I wear on the first day? Nonetheless, we accept that change, and the emotions that go with it, is an inevitable part of our young lives.
Ultimately, we tap into our excitement and curiosity to overcome and face our fears. As adults, we experience change far less frequently. On the contrary, we are encouraged to change less and make more long-term commitments. We are told that it will look bad on our resume if we change jobs too frequently, that we should own a car, a home and make a lifelong commitment to one partner.
Where our formative years are spent hopping from one new experience to another, our adult years can become certain, repetitive and even stagnant. Toward the end of 2012, and approaching my decade mark in Manhattan, I had reached a point where I was craving change. I had worked diligently and been blessed with career success, a beautiful luxury apartment, and a strong support system of friends and family.
However, gradually and almost imperceptibly, my needs had shifted, and the life I had created for myself was no longer working for me. Whereas in the past I might have started contacting recruiters or trolling StreetEasy for a new place to live, I already knew that no new job, apartment, or other material item would fulfill this growing desire. What I truly wanted, in a deep, quiet place inside myself (a place I had begun to access through my yoga practice), was a means through which I could experience radical, transformational change from the inside out.
I wanted to live somewhere else entirely, somewhere “off the grid.” I wanted to feel what it was like NOT to have a job for a while, after working (hard) for ten years straight. I wanted to begin creating the next phase of my life, but I wasn’t sure what it looked like yet and was too tired and burned out to start putting it together. How could I implement changes in my life when I didn’t have the time, energy, or space to envision them?
By the infamous 2012 December Solstice, I already understood that one world was, indeed, ending; but what new world would arise in its place remained to be seen. I now had 2013 to save money (read: not completely empty bank account), complete a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training I had already committed to, and, eventually, plan my exit strategy. When it was time to begin planning, I turned to Google to research potential destinations, inputting keywords such as “yoga,” “retreat” and “volunteer.” I figured that volunteer work would infuse some structure into my time off (I could neither afford to go on extended vacay, nor did I necessarily want to), and would allow whatever money I was able to save to buy me what I wanted more than anything: time.
It wasn’t until a sick day home in bed, watching “The Descendants” that I began to contemplate Hawaii. A friend’s passing comment a few days later, “let’s go to Hawaii!” reminded me, and I immediately typed the words “yoga,” “volunteer,” and “Hawaii” into the search box. My eyes scanned the results, gravitating to the phrases “Volunteer in Hawaii” and “Kalani Retreat Center” that topped the list.
As I explored the Kalani website, watching videos, reading blog entries, and looking at pictures of the sprawling, lush, green property nestled in a remote part of the Big Island, it became clear that this was where I was going. I called the volunteer office that afternoon and spoke to a man named John, who encouraged me to apply as soon as possible. I sensed almost instantly that my search had ended; but my transition had just begun.
On the Kalani volunteer application, I had to answer the question: What transitions will you make in order to come to Kalani? I replied: “In order to come to Kalani, I will give up my apartment and proximity to friends and family, I will take an extended leave of absence from my job, and I will leave my familiar city life behind to create space for what is to come and take steps toward doing what I am really here to do.”
On February 2nd, 2014, I arrived at Kalani, having done just that; having gone through each and every item I acquired during my ten-year stint in New York City, deciding what to keep, what to throw away, and what to donate; having uprooted myself from the place that had become my home; having secured an extended leave of absence from my job; having said bittersweet goodbyes to my best friends, my parents, and to all the people and experiences that have made this chapter of my life memorable and meaningful.
I gave up the certainty of knowing what each day will hold, and in that I will experience the freedom, insecurity, and uncertainty of change. I traded in my 29th floor luxury studio for a tent and an air mattress, and my corporate digital marketing job for four shifts a week in a kitchen. I traveled, by myself, from one of the world’s biggest and busiest metropolises to a remote corner of the planet near an active volcano.
In the spirit of Aloha, a word among whose meanings are “hello” and “goodbye,” I said goodbye to one life and hello to another, a chapter that has yet to be written. And in the spirit of change, I was equal parts scared and excited, an intoxicating elixir of emotions that carried me across the threshold as I reinvented myself in a transformational year.
Have you ever wondered how you got to a certain point in your life and what event, idea, or person may have led you down the path you now follow? My introduction into the world of autism was entirely unexpected and unplanned. In 1995, I received a phone call from a parent who was interested in enrolling her seven-year-old daughter, Amanda, in swim lessons. Janis, Amanda’s mother, explained that she was interested in only private instruction; the typical swim class, she told me, would not suit Amanda. She explained that the likelihood of Amanda actually learning proper swimming technique was not a concern. She simply wanted to pay me to play with Amanda in the pool because Amanda loved the water — it seemed to make her happy and calm. Janis asked me if I knew anything about autism and if I had any experience teaching children with autism. I assured her that I had taught children with many different special needs, and I was willing to explore the world of autism.
At the time, I had been teaching swimming for 20 years. I started teaching swimming at the age of 12, as a volunteer at Children’s Hospital in San Diego. I also volunteered for the Easter Seals Swim Program, where I taught children with various disabilities such as Down syndrome, blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy and Spina Bifida. Because of these experiences, I felt confident working with any child, even one with autism.
Without hesitation, I told Janis that I would teach her child, even though I was completely unaware of what autism was. Janis had a sense of relief in her voice as she told me that she had tried several other swim programs without success; no one was willing to work with Amanda and take on her unique challenges in the pool. I love nothing more than a challenge. So, in preparation for my first lesson with Amanda, which was scheduled for the very next day, I raced over to the library and did a little research on autism. As it turned out, my three hours of research was not enough.
At times, Amanda became aggressive and non-compliant with my requests or direction. I constantly tried to imagine what she was thinking and figure out how her logic and thought processes flowed. I was relentless in my attempts to connect with Amanda. When one tactic didn’t work, I tried something else, and then something else, until I found what worked. I never gave up on Amanda.
After a few months, I invited Janis to watch Amanda, who was by then able to swim a length of the pool with a coordinated freestyle stroke. I was proud of the fact that I was able to do what so many other swim instructors refused to even try. I didn’t realize what an incredible impact that moment would have on Amanda, Janis, or me, until I saw the tears streaming down Janis’s face as she told me, “You don’t understand how important this is. Amanda goes to school, and no one has been able to teach her to read, write, or even talk. Yet, you were able to teach her how to swim.”
The appreciation and sheer gratitude Janis showed me has sent me down this path, which has, in essence, altered my career and given me passion I would not have otherwise found. I empathize now with the struggles of families with children with autism and knowing that drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism, due to flight risk, no inherent sense of danger and fascination with water, how critical it is for those with autism to learn to swim.
This blog post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The NASCAR Foundation, in conjunction with the latter’s Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. HuffPost will feature a blog by each one of the four finalists on consecutive days, and each will appear on HuffPost Live that day. To see all the posts in the series, visit here. For more information about the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award — and to vote for the winner — visit here.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will huddle with Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday evening to discuss his plans for executive action on immigration, as he prepares to defend the legality of granting deportation relief to millions of people.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing that 18 Democratic members from the House and Senate will attend dinner with the president on Wednesday evening. Republicans were not invited to attend.
Obama will address the nation about immigration at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, and then speak about the issue again on Friday in Las Vegas.
“Everybody agrees our immigration system is broken,” Obama said in a video announcing the Thursday speech. “Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long. What I am going to be laying out are the things I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better, even as I continue to work with Congress.”
Obama will have to make the case that his actions are the right move, and will likely need Democrats and immigration advocates to stand with him. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday found that 48 percent of Americans oppose Obama taking executive action, while 38 percent support it and 14 percent were unsure or had no opinion.
Earnest said the White House is expecting “a rather lengthy discussion” about executive action on immigration, and that the president “is looking forward to this debate.”
“The president feels very confident both in the steps that he has taken, he also feels very confident in knowing that these steps are going to be good for the country,” he said.
“This is an important step that will have a pretty profound impact on the lives of millions of people who live here,” he added later.
Politico reported earlier Wednesday that the relief will apply to about 5 million undocumented immigrants, including people with long-standing ties to the country such as parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The reprieve will not include farm workers or the parents of so-called Dreamers, undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children, according to Politico. Advocacy sources contacted by The Huffington Post said those details were consistent with that they’d heard.
Republicans have said broader deportation relief would be a radical overstep of Obama’s authority. Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who chair the committees responsible for immigration and homeland security, sent a letter to the president on Wednesday saying that they “will be forced to use the tools afforded to Congress by the Constitution to stop your administration from successfully carrying out your plan.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the GOP will not shut down the government over immigration, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made no such promise. He said Republicans are still considering how to respond to Obama’s executive action. One option could be setting up multiple showdowns over immigration by passing only short-term funding bills. Some Republicans have also suggested delaying the confirmation process for Obama’s nominees or stonewalling him in other ways.
Earnest declined to say what the president would do if he receives a government funding bill that would block executive action — the move that could trigger a government shutdown. He said Congress is still able to pass its own immigration reform bills, and Obama would be happy to work with them.
Earnest said there is “a solid legal foundation” for Obama’s actions on immigration — something many legal experts agree with. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson made the case earlier Wednesday, as he has before, that deferred action would be part of prosecutorial discretion, which is the need by law enforcement agencies to prioritize based on limited resources. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy for Dreamers is based on the same grounds.
Earnest would not go into detail about the president’s plans, but said they were all based on existing legal authority.
“Once we have an opportunity to talk about some of the details related to the executive action that the president has chosen to take, it will become clear that there is a solid legal authority for the president taking those actions,” Earnest said.
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