The announcement that President Barack Obama would not take an executive action on immigration until after the November elections unchained a torrent of reactions.

"Because of the Republicans' extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections," a White House official said, asking for anonymity.

Nonetheless, he added that Obama wants reform carried out "before the end of the year."

The president in this way gave in to the pressure from some Democratic lawmakers who had urged Obama to delay any measures on immigration because of the possible negative effects they could have on the November elections, when the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be renewed.

In June, faced with obstruction by Congressional Republicans who control the House of Representatives, Obama said he would take executive action to reform the immigration system before the end of summer.

On Monday, the president’s director of domestic policy, Cecilia Muñoz, reiterated in an interview with MSNBC that he will act before the end of the year.

Obama’s decision was criticized by Latino congressmen like Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who asked for a meeting with the president to express his “frustration and anger” for delaying any action in terms of immigration, but asked the Hispanic community not to punish the democrats in the upcoming elections. 

Gutierrez said that everybody in Washington knows that the president’s decision was motivated in part by “four or five” democrats. Among them, he mentioned Richard Durbin as well as governor Pat Quinn, both whom face strong republican rivals. 

Rep. Loretta Sánchez (D-Calif.) said Monday she was disappointed in the president for delaying action on immigration, adding that he didn’t give the Hispanic Caucus any word ahead of time that there was a change of plans.

“The president said he would address [immigration reform] with us,” Sánchez explained on CNN. “He has delayed it to after the election, [we] had no heads up on that.”

Here are some reactions from leaders and members of pro-immigrant organizations in Philadelphia:

“We are disappointed with the president's decision not to take action on this topic that is so important for our communities, especially since we know he did it for political reasons and the November elections. It is disappointing to see that he is playing a political game with the lives of thousands of people while everyday that passes by there are families who are being separated.”

-Miguel Andrade, youth organizer from Juntos.

“Again and again, we see those who claim to support the rights of immigrants, failing to deliver on their promises and sacrificing immigrant families in the name of political expediency. Again and again, they claim that the time isn’t right and that reform must wait. But the failure to act has real human costs. Every month that our elected officials delay action, thousands of immigrant families are separated; the same hardworking families from whose labor we benefit but who live in the shadows of our broken immigration system.

We need those who claim to support immigrants to have the moral courage to take action even when it is politically contentious. Immigrant leaders and families will continue to respond to this lack of leadership with a brave and fierce determination to make sure promises are kept. As a coalition representing dozens of immigrant advocacy groups and thousands of immigrant families in Pennsylvania, we denounce this lack of courage and will fight with vigor and determination to see that politicians' words hold meaning and America's historical promise to immigrants is kept.”

-Natasha Kelemen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.

"The President thinks we are trash. He needs to put himself in our shoes and act bravely. We are human beings living in this country. Now more than ever we need people to get involved."

- Teresa, originally from Mexico, member of Visitation BVM Parish.  

"It's a political mistake. If the President doesn't act on immigration, Democrats won't win anyway." 

- Rene, member of New Sanctuary Movement.

"Obama hasn't done anything and the only thing he can provide are more and more excuses. Now he has between now and November to invent another excuse to keep deporting our people. I don't think he'll do anything in November, just make more excuses." 

- Alejandra, member of New Sanctuary Movement.