After the elections in November 2014, President Barack Obama held a press conference to announce that he would be making sweeping changes to American immigration policy. Hailed as one of the most comprehensive immigration reforms in over a decade, nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States will have the opportunity to legally remain in the country.

What should I know about immigration reform?

According to recent numbers, an estimated 11 million United States immigrants are undocumented. It is also estimated that 4.4 million of those are the parents of American permanent residents and citizens. This new reform will allow these immigrants to face less fear of being thrown in jail or deported for minor actions.

President Obama's new plan is two-fold, allowing parents of legal residents to remain in the country without fear of deportation and decreasing the amount of children brought into the country illegally by their parents that are deported each year.

The new plan will additionally:

• Expand the work authorization for highly skilled workers;
• Devote resources to punishing criminals and deporting felons;
• Allow parents of permanent residents and citizens to remain in the United States if they pass a background check and pay taxes; and
• Deploy more resources to the border to prevent illegal immigration and deport immigrants that have recently entered the country.

Those that are eligible under the plan can hold jobs and pay taxes after passing a background check that allows them to possess a Social Security card. However, unless they take the necessary actions to become a permanent resident or citizen of, these individuals will not be able to access government sponsored healthcare.

The government seeks to shift their focus from punishing hard-working families to preventing those with criminal records from entering and staying in the United States. National security will focus on getting those people out of the country by increasing security on the border.

Deporting all 11 million workers in the United States is not only unrealistic, but may be detrimental. Obama's new plan is sympathetic to the millions of hard-working and law-abiding immigrants that call the United States their home. It provides an avenue for legal residency while relieving many of their fears of being forced to leave the United States.