President Obama won't use his pardon authority to protect millions of immigrants who came here illegally because the action would not confer 'legal status' or protect them from deportation in the new administration.

Domestic policy advisor Cecilia Munoz explained the reasons for Obama's decision in an interview with the Center for Migration Studies.

'I know that people are hoping for use of pardon authority as a way,' Munoz said, when asked whether Obama would use his authority to help part of the population.

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President Obama's domestic policy advisor Cecilia Munoz says Obama won't use his pardon authority to protect a group of illegal immigrants, such as a group of people brought here illegally as children

She noted that because the president's executive action on people brought here illegally as children involved use of executive authority, 'obviously the next executive can make whatever decisions they're going to make about it,'

'I know people are hoping that pardon authority is a way to protect people. It's ultimately not for a couple of reasons. One is that pardon authority is generally designed for criminal violations, not civil,' as the Washington Examiner reported.

'But also it doesn't confer legal status, only Congress can do that, and so ultimately it wouldn't protect a single soul from deportation, so it's not an answer here for this population,' Munoz added,'I know people are hoping for an answer,' she said.

Obama in 2014 issued an executive action that deferred action against immigrants who were brought here illegally as children. He later issued another order providing protections for parents of immigrants who are now U.S. citizens and lawful residents.

Munoz said a pardon won't protect a 'single soul' from deportation

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to undo President Obama's executive actions, and has called his actions on immigration unconstitutional

Trump, who campaigned heavily on a crackdown on illegal immigration, opposed the executive actions and called them 'one of the most unconstitutional actions ever undertaken by a President.'

Obama has been using his pardon authority with greater frequency as the end of his term nears to deal with criminal violations, focusing on nonviolent drug offenders.

Munoz, who is the director of the president's domestic policy council, also got asked about claims that the U.S. was discriminating against persecuted Christians in how it is admitting immigrants.

'That for our purposes, and this is tremendously important, when the United States receives refugees, we're not applying a religious lens, and the folks who are making determinations about who is in fact in need of protection, the lens that they should be applying is the lens of are people suffering persecution, are people in danger. Sadly the world is a dangerous place for people of pretty much all faiths and our job is to protect them,"

She said the failure to enact a comprehensive immigration bill was her 'greatest frustration.'