Many Californians Celebrating Deportation Relief Before President Obama's Speech

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The stakes for President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration are particularly high in California, which has the largest number of people living illegally than any other state by far. For activists hardened by years of setbacks, celebrations began even before the president's televised speech Thursday evening.

From San Diego to Santa Rosa, activists invited friends to watch the speech. About a dozen groups planned to watch on a large screen in the streets of downtown Los Angeles and hear a performance by the alternative rock band La Santa Cecilia.

"We're going to have plenty of Kleenex around," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which planned its own screening of the president's speech and a road trip to Las Vegas, where Obama will rally support for his plan on Friday. "This is a watch party that I'm going to enjoy tremendously."

The United Farm Workers organized celebrations in Fresno, Bakersfield and six other California cities. The group's president, Arturo Rodriguez, was briefed on the plan by Obama and estimates that 250,000 farmworkers will be shielded from deportation, including 125,000 in California.

Obama's measures could make as many as 5 million people eligible for work permits, with the broadest action likely aimed at extending deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as long as those parents have been in the country for at least five years.

Many Mexicans settled in California after Mexico's economy collapsed in 1982, and Central Americans came in the 1980s to escape civil war, making the state's immigrant population more established than in other states. Those deeper roots may mean that immigrants in California are more likely to benefit.

The independent Migration Policy Institute estimates that nearly 1.6 million people in California will be shielded from deportation out of 5.2 million nationwide.

The Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project estimates California had 2.45 million people living illegally in 2012 out of 11.2 million nationwide.

Not all Californians celebrated. Escondido Mayor Sam Abed, who has championed local policies aimed at reducing illegal immigration in his city of 150,000 people, said he wouldn't listen to Obama's speech.

"This president has failed this country. He has failed the rule of law," Abed said. "It's abuse of power. This should be done by the Congress."

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.