Joy, disappointment with Obama immigration executive order

SEATTLE — Teresa Garcia could not stop the tears. A mother of three from Mexico, she's lived under the threat that deportation would break up her family.

She joined a rally at the Seattle Federal Building and celebrated with the immigrant rights group One America in the hours before the president issued his executive order.

“We are going to be complete, we can go and do the right things that we have to do,” Garcia said.

Lisette Llerena and her husband came to the United States from Peru.

“We came to the United States looking for a better opportunity,” she said.

They lived under the threat of deportation, even though four of their five children are U.S. citizens by birth.

Something she was afraid to tell the youngest children until it was clear the president would act.

“Something is going to happen that's going to let us live our lives without fear,” she told them on Monday.

West Seattle resident Craig Keller objects to the president’s order.

“It needs to be responded to by impeachment, as well as defunding any mechanism that is used to human traffic these people that should not be in the United States," Keller said.

Keller has run seven unsuccessful initiative campaigns to restrict benefits for undocumented immigrants. He said the president is just encouraging more illegal immigration.

"Now we have a human trafficker in chief that is perpetuating this. He needs to be impeached."

At Seattle’s Casa Latina, the daytime worker and education center, a crowd watched the speech on Spanish language television. Selina Gonzalez told us she’ll be OK, but the president’s order will not help her mother.

“We've been here for 14 years. My mom wanted to give me the best. She sacrificed not seeing her family,” she said.

Sylvia Gonzalez is happy for those the president is helping, even though she still faces the threat of deportation. “More disappointed, more disappointed because I work every day, every day, hard.”

KIRO