President Obama has asked the secretary of Homeland Security to do the review. Obama calls for deportations review

President Barack Obama finally bowed to pressure from immigration rights activists and signaled on Thursday that he may change his deportation policy.

The president changed course after months of claiming there was nothing his White House could do to stem the flow of deportations of undocumented immigrants. Obama announced in a meeting readout that he has requested a review of his administration’s enforcement policies for immigration laws to see if that enforcement can be done “more humanely within the confines of the law,” the White House said Thursday.


To immigrant rights activists, however, that is something of a victory. It means Obama is taking steps toward changing the administration’s deportation policies — though the groups won’t be satisfied until the policies are in force.

( Also on POLITICO: Obama to meet with immigration advocates Friday)

The announcement comes after Obama and the White House for months insisted there was nothing the administration could do to stem the flow of deportations short of Congress passing comprehensive immigration reform, which is unlikely to happen soon. And it came as Hispanic lawmakers were weighing a formal statement demanding Obama act on his own.

The White House made the announcement after Obama met for more than an hour Thursday evening with three leading members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus amid a furor in the Latino and immigration-rights community over the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants during his administration.

“The president emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting.

Obama asked Jeh Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to conduct the review, the White House said. Democratic Reps. Xavier Becerra of California, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Rubén Hinojosa of Texas attended the Thursday meeting at the White House. The three congressmen did not speak to reporters upon leaving the White House.

( PHOTOS: An immigration naturalization ceremony)

“It is clear that the pleas from the community got through to the President,” Gutierrez said in a later statement. “The CHC will work with him to keep families together. The President clearly expressed the heartbreak he feels because of the devastating effect that deportations have on families.”

The CHC released a statement late Thursday calling the meeting “productive” and saying members will meet soon with Johnson to discuss “moving forward in a constructive manner.”

The White House has scheduled a meeting Friday afternoon with Obama for a half-dozen top immigration activists, many of whom have demanded the president do something on immigration.

The White House meeting came as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has played a key role on setting immigration policy for House Democrats, has been wrestling with a resolution aimed at Obama on deportations that would take a sharp line against the administration.

Key lawmakers and immigration reform advocates, highly skeptical that the GOP-led House will take up legislation this year, have upped pressure on the Obama administration to use executive action to suspend deportations they view as unnecessary.

Obama and his aides had repeatedly said that is not an option. Still, advocates were hopeful that Obama will issue a directive similar to one he announced in spring 2012, which deferred deportations for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

The Hispanic Caucus has yet to formalize the resolution, but an earlier draft obtained by POLITICO calls on Obama to use “all legal means” to suspend, delay or stop deportations of immigrants if the removal would “have an adverse impact on the United States.”

After days of debate, however, lawmakers toughened up the language.

Pressure began to build on Obama to do something about deportations — which activists say will number 2 million by early April — when a heckler interrupted the president at an event in San Francisco in November. Since then, pressure to stop deportations went mainstream within the Latino community, with the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino group, dubbing Obama the “deporter-in-chief” last week.

That was followed by three key Democratic members of the Gang of Eight that negotiated the Senate immigration deal — Chuck Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey — calling for Obama to do something to slow the pace of deportations.

Opponents of unilateral action on deportations have argued it would hurt chances of passing immigration legislation in the House. The president told the three House Democrats Thursday of his “strong desire to work together” to pressure Republican House members on Capitol Hill to pass comprehensive immigration reform. But action there has been moving at a snail’s pace to begin with, and will be complicated by the fact that it’s an election year.

Activists who have been working longest on the deportation issue cautiously welcomed the move.

“Review can not be an excuse for delay,” said Chris Newman, the legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “The president has the legal authority and moral obligation to change his deportation policy, and every day he waits will be a blemish on his legacy.”

Newman’s organization is organizing a series of nationwide rallies in early April to pressure Democrats who have not condemned Obama’s deportation policies.

Cesar Vargas of the Dream Action Coalition said that “immediate actions will speak louder than press releases.”

Vargas, who has been discussing the CHC resolution with lawmakers, said Thursday that the new version was “absolutely” stronger than the previous draft.

“The CHC is truly our allies,” Vargas said. “We need to see allies, not followers.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the Hispanic Caucus is taking up the issue because it is “responding to a community issue.”

“We’re responding to inertia on the part of Republicans to do nothing as the situation continues to worsen, and look to the administration as the last option for relief,” Grijalva said.

The full 26-member CHC had been poised to vote on whether to approve the resolution earlier Thursday, but that was delayed until after the White House meeting.

John Bresnahan contributed to this report.