President Obama speaking on the phone with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, September 2013. Photo: The White House

Telegram — President Barack Obama is expected to ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement system that will protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits, according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the plan.

Asserting his authority as president to enforce the nation’s laws with discretion, Obama intends to order changes that will significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents. One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.

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