Obama immigration order poses dilemma for eligible illegal immigrants

Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo discusses the immigration order with MSNBC-TV's Alex Wagner, NBC News' Luke Russert, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet and BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith.

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com, and Jose Diaz-Balart, Telemundo

The Obama administration's announcement Friday that it would defer deporting most young illegal immigrants poses a dilemma for those who are eligible, as they must take a leap of faith that they won't jump to the head of the line for deportation if a future president rescinds the order.

Pete Williams of NBC News and Miranda Leitsinger of msnbc.com contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com and Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter andFacebook.

Under the order, the Obama administration wouldn't seek to deport illegal immigrants under 30 who entered the U.S. as children and meet certain other residency and education requirements for the next two years. They also would be eligible to apply for work permits, the Department of Homeland Security said. DHS is the parent agency of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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The order could apply to as many as 800,000 young illegal immigrants, officials estimated. The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, said later that even more immigrants — as many as 1.4 million children and young adults — could meet the eligibility requirements. That would be about 12 percent of the 11.2 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the U.S. as of 2010