President Obama issued a series executive actions Thursday night, detailing a plan to protect 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

“Our immigration system is broken and everybody knows it,” Obama said. “Mass amnesty would be unfair. Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character.”

The plan, which is one of the broadest immigration reforms in U.S. history, will allow parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders, to work in the country for a period of three years.

The number of undocumented children who were brought to the United States was also expanded. The plan also makes it easier for immigrants trained in high tech jobs to enter the country.

It focuses immigration enforcement more on criminals, immigrants with ties to terrorist groups or gangs, and people who crossed the border in the past year. These people will be most susceptible to deportation.

MSU College Democrats President Briana Shamsduddoha said Obama’s move was “a step in the right direction.”

“This is something that needed to be done,” Shamsuddoha said. “I think it was great. It sets the tone for the next two years.”

House Speaker John Boehner and many other Republicans are outraged with the Obama’s reforms, calling them “sabotage” and illegal.

“President Obama has cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left,” Boehner said.

Publisher of Gongwer News Service John Lindstrom told The State News he believes Obama’s decision to issue an executive order was a “gambit to force Congress to do something about immigration.”

Lindstrom paraphrased what Obama has previously alluded to in interviews, “If you don’t like it, come up with something else.”

Today the House GOP filed a lawsuit against Obama for overstepping his executive authority. The suit is centered on the Affordable Care Act but the decision to officially file it today was based on Obama’s most recent executive actions.