The great immigration debate: the deadlock in Washington reflects the nation's division on how to deal with illegal immigration.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

Cesar Cruz has big dreams. The 19-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador hopes to earn a doctorate in bioengineering.

"I want to help out my parents and show them their efforts weren't for nothing," he said recently in Los Angeles.

After living in the shadows since his parents brought him to the United States when he was 10, Cruz will now have a chance to get the education he wants and live out in the open.

Cruz is one of as many as 1.7 million young illegal immigrants who could be allowed to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation as a result of an executive order issued in June by President Obama. The administration is stopping deportations of young people brought here illegally as children and allowing them to apply for two-year work permits.

"They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper," Obama said.

The temporary work permits are expected to open many doors that have been shut. They will allow those who are eligible* to get valid Social Security numbers and apply for driver's licenses and federal financial aid for college.

But the young people covered under the policy represent just 15 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., about 6.5 million of them from Mexico (see chart).

Tackling the broader problem of illegal immigration remains a huge challenge, with Washington unable to agree on an approach. Democrats have generally focused on a path toward legalization for those here illegally, provided they pay fines, learn English, and wait their turn to be considered. This is the approach President Obama favors.

Republicans have generally focused on tightening border security, with some talking about stepping up deportions of illegal immigrants. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, has recently taken a softer tone than his tough stance on immigration during the primaries. He now proposes cutting the immigration system's red tape and providing a path to legal status for illegal immigrants who serve in the U.S. military. He hasn't said whether he'd undo Obama's policy of granting temporary status to young illegal immigrants.

The group of illegal immigrants who are benefitting from Obama's new policy is similar to those who would have benefitted from the Dream Act, which Congress failed to pass. The Dream Act would have gone a step further, providing a path to citizenship for those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Obama himself recognized that the executive order "is not a permanent fix." Only Congress has the power to provide immigrants a path to citizenship.

Many Republicans have criticized the president for doing an end-run around Congress. And they say giving work permits to any illegal immigrants is poorly timed, with the unemployment rate at more than 8 percent. Supporters argue that young people who were brought here illegally as children are a special case, because they didn't make the decision to come to the U.S. or break the law.

Politics comes into play as both parties consider the views of important constituencies...