Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, pledging to go "beyond President Obama" in embracing illegal immigrants, said that she will use executive powers as president to go around Congress to end deportations.

At Saturday's Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner, she also called illegals "law abiding."

During a period of her 25 minute address when she was listing her political promises, she turned to immigration to say that she would go farther than Obama to protect the 12 million illegal immigrants in America, especially families.

"I am going to back and support what President Obama has done to protect Dreamers and their families, to use executive action to prevent deportation," Clinton said to cheers in the audience of about 6,000.

"If we can not get comprehensive immigration reform as we need, and as we should, with a real path to citizenship that will actually grow our economy then I will go as far as I can, even beyond President Obama, to make sure law abiding, decent, hard working people in this country are not ripped away from their families," she added.

Clinton was the third Democrat to speak at the Iowa event Saturday night and it followed a rally for her featuring former President Bill Clinton and pop star Katy Perry.

Immigration has become a hot button issue on the campaign trail in part because Republican front-runner Donald Trump has promised to seal the borders and also because of two years of unprecedented waves of younger immigrants from Mexico and Latin America flooding over the U.S. border.

Illegal immigrants are supposed to face court hearings on their status, but a new report showed that as immigration courts have shifted to focus on the younger immigrants, wait times for adults to get a hearing have stretched to three years. And many never appear for their hearings.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.