Barack Obama's intentions

Barack Obama’s speech, “Address to the Nation on Immigration”, has been delivered with two main intentions: to inform and get the nation’s approval for the President’s executive measures regarding immigration, as well as to put pressure on the Congress to pass a bill reforming the immigration system.

Through the speech, Obama announces the country that he has decided to take three steps as a President in order to deal with the faults of the immigration system. However, his speech is not purely informative. Because his actions are executive and not backed up by Congress legislation, Obama needs them to be backed up by the nation. If the nation would oppose his measures, than they will have very little legitimacy. For this reason, Obama’s speech is mostly structured to persuade the general American public that the measures are not only necessary, but also the bes...