President Barack Obama brushed off complaints levied by the GOP that his immigration actions are illegal in an ABC News interview that aired today, saying that the U.S. has 'limited resources' and it only makes sense for the government to prioritize the removal of 'felons, criminals and recent arrivals' over longtime residents and families. 'Everybody knows, including Republicans, that we're not going to deport 11 million people,' Obama told George Stephanopolous during a Friday interview for his Sunday morning program This Week. 'The reason that we have to do prosecutorial discretion in immigration is that we know that we are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time,' he said.
@highlight
Obama made the remarks during an interview with This Week host George Stephanopolous that was broadcast Sunday
@highlight
'We are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time,' he said
@highlight
'It is a stunning and sad display of a president declining to honor his constitutional obligation,' GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said in response
@highlight
The president declined to if he was worried about outbursts of violence in Ferguson if police officer Darren Wilson is not indicted
@highlight
He also wouldn't endorse Hillary Clinton for president but said she'd be 'a great president' and gave her his blessing to depart from his positions
@highlight
Americans 'want that new car smell,' he said. 'They want to drive something off the lot that doesn't have as much mileage as me'
Cruz said what @placeholder did last week is 'a wholesale refusal to follow our immigration laws,' and he's 'essentially he's gotten in the job of counterfeiting immigration papers, because there's no legal authority to do what he's doing.'