This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, June 15, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The President today announced a shift in his immigration policy that might allow hundreds of thousands of people

to stave off deportation for at least two years.

But it's not permanent, and it likely puts many of those people in a holding pattern over their

immigration status.

But it does represent a shift toward a more rational policy.

Alex Norasti, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, comments.

The policy is basically that people who are brought here under the age of 16, who are unauthorized immigrants, who are brought here under the age of 16 who are unauthorized immigrants

who are not criminals who are going to school or got their degree

who are living here peacefully can apply, can get their deportations deferred and get issued a temporary

work permit for two years without fear of being deported.

That's essentially the shift that he's proposed.

This is in response, I think, to some recent events, some young person essentially

snagged shortly after high school graduation and a lot of other young people who essentially

have grown up as Americans being snagged and threatened with deportation.

Yeah, that's also, that's some of it. Also, I think the main reason is probably politics.

It's not a coincidence that recently Marco Rubio,

the Republican senator from Florida,

has been pushing his version of the Dream Act,

which would do pretty much the same thing as Obama's proposal, but make it permanent.

It's no coincidence that just last week, the Texas GOP put a platform in its party plane calling for an unlimited number of guest worker visas.

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