Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama lifted the immediate threat of deportation and opened the way to better jobs for about 5 million undocumented immigrants, thrusting a long-simmering fight to the forefront as he takes on a Republican-controlled Congress.   After a televised address last night outlining his actions, Obama planned to travel today to Nevada, a state with a fast-growing Hispanic population emblematic of Latinos' rising political power in presidential battleground states.   Determined to block the president's actions, congressional Republicans must confront a divide in their ranks over how far to go to stop him, including tensions over whether to risk shutting down the federal government.

Obama's action on immigration "damages the presidency" and will encourage more people to come to the U.S. illegally, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters today. Obama has "deliberately sabotaged" any chance of enacting the bipartisan revisions he claims to seek, Boehner said.

"The House will in fact act," Boehner said at the Capitol, while declining to say how Republicans will fight Obama's plan.

Obama said he had the authority to redirect the nation's immigration enforcement apparatus to target "actual threats to our security: Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who's working hard."

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