I worked for Immigration for 30 years and all the misinformation being spread by a certain segment of the country is outrageous. The executive has the authority to forestall deportation and grant employment authorization. We have been doing it since Mr Reagan did it in his presidency and we have done it with all classes of folks who are here illegally. Every time there has been a crisis in some country or another (like Reagan and Nicaragua) we responded by allowing them to stay and giving them employment authorization and it wasn't congress who did it either. In some cases, later on Congress passed special laws to allow them to become Resident Aliens but initially it was on the President's call.