The American Immigration Council (AIC) released a report that makes count of 39 historical cases in which every president since Eisenhower has used his discretion to take action, whether large or  small, on immigration matters.

“Much has been made of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, through which he deferred deportation for young adults brought to the U.S. as children,” says the report. “(But) the history books reveal that President Obama’s action follows a long line of presidents who relied on their executive branch authority to address immigration challenges.”

The report was published amid a complex immigration crisis: On top of the 11 million undocumented immigrants already residing in the United States, more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America have been apprehended at the border in previous months. The lack of action in Congress has now been topped by Obama’s broken promises and his recent announcement that he won’t be taking executive action until after the elections.

“Some presidents announced programs while legislation was pending. Other presidents responded to humanitarian crises. Still others made compelling choices to assist individuals in need when the law failed to address their needs or changes in circumstance,” reads the report.

Here are some highlights of the full report:

• In 1956, under President Dwight Eisenhower, 923 foreign-born orphans were paroled into the custody of military families seeking to adopt them, pending Congressional legislation providing them with permanent resident status.
• Between 1959 and 1972, a period covering the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations, a total of 621,403 Cuban asylum-seekers fleeing the Cuban revolution and Castro’s Cuba were granted parole while legislation on this issue was pending. 
• Between 1962 and 1965, under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, 15,100 Chinese who fled to Hong Kong in early 1962 were granted parole.
• In 1976, President Gerald Ford extended Voluntary Departure (EVD) for an unknown number of Lebanese (14,000 fled Lebanon to the United States), offering them a protection from deportation and providing work authorization.
• In 1980, President Jimmy Carter granted parole to 123,000 Cubans and Haitians during the Mariel boatlift.
• In 1987, President Ronald Reagan deferred deportation for children in more than 100,000 families of some non-citizens who applied as part of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) that granted legal status to about three million immigrants.
• In 1990, President George H. Bush deferred deportation of 1.5 million unauthorized spouses and children of individuals whose status was normalized under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA).
• In 1992, President George H. Bush granted stays of deportation to 190,000 Salvadorans, even though (and because) the statutory Temporary Protection Status (TPS), which allowed them to live and work in the U.S., had expired. President Clinton subsequently extended the DED grant until 1994.
• In 2002, President George W. Bush issued an executive order to expedite the naturalization for green card holders who enlisted in the military and were on active duty after 9/11, eliminating a three-year wait and letting soldiers seek citizenship immediately. 
• In 2012, President Obama provided the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a two-year renewable protection from deportation, and work authorization for an estimate of 1.8 million undocumented youth who would have benefited by the DREAM-Act legislation.