WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s surprise decision to halt U.S. deportations of young illegal immigrants has all but killed a Republican effort to fashion legislation that could have won political points with Hispanic voters in November’s elections.

Republican Senators, including Marco Rubio, had been working behind the scenes for months on a bill that would have allowed some children of illegal immigrants a chance to stay in the United States legally while pursuing college or military careers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who were brought into the United States as children will be able to avoid deportation and get work permits under an order on Friday by President Barack Obama.

In a move that seemed to be aimed at Hispanics whose enthusiasm for voting in the November 6 election could be crucial to Obama’s re-election chances, the president acted to potentially protect 800,000 people from deportation proceedings for at least two years.

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – About 800,000 young illegal
immigrants who came to the United States as children could be
spared deportation under new immigration rules announced by the
Obama administration on Friday that may appeal to Hispanic
voters in an election year.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that
illegal immigrants up to 30 years old who came to the United
States as children and do not pose a risk to national security
would be eligible to stay in the country and allowed to apply
for work permits.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If ever there was a case for putting off until tomorrow what could be done today, the deeply divided U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama have found one in the “fiscal cliff” decisions they face.

It’s not that all 535 members of Congress and the Obama administration are sitting around, twiddling their thumbs until after the November 6 elections and putting off momentous tax and budget questions, especially with a European economic crisis scarily threatening U.S. growth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If ever there was a case for putting off until tomorrow what could be done today, the deeply divided U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama have found one in the “fiscal cliff” decisions they face.

It’s not that all 535 members of Congress and the Obama administration are sitting around, twiddling their thumbs until after the November 6 elections and putting off momentous tax and budget questions, especially with a European economic crisis scarily threatening U.S. growth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner drew an election-year battle line over the U.S. borrowing limit on Tuesday, saying he would back another increase at year-end only if it was offset by a larger package of spending cuts.

Drawing quick fire from President Barack Obama’s Democrats, Boehner said he would “insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner took a tough line Tuesday on end-of-year legislation to increase the government’s borrowing authority, saying he would only support it if it locks in a new round of spending cuts.

Boehner said he will insist “on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase,” according to excerpts of remarks the top U.S. Republican was to deliver later in the day at a Peterson Foundation fiscal forum.