An official announcement isn't expected until next week at the earliest, but the New York Times has reported some of the details of the president's impending action.
Mr. Obama intends to order changes that will significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents. One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away. [...]
Mr. Obama’s actions will also expand opportunities for immigrants who have high-tech skills, shift extra security resources to the nation’s southern border, revamp a controversial immigration enforcement program called Secure Communities, and provide clearer guidance to the agencies that enforce immigration laws about who should be a low priority for deportation, especially those with strong family ties and no serious criminal history.
Granting work permits to the immigrant parents of American children is not "amnesty" but the GOP has already decided that any action taken by the president, regardless of how limited or far reaching it it, is "executive amnesty."
A group of congressional Republicans are planning to challenge the president's action by withholding government funding though it remains to be seen if House and Senate leadership will go along with it.
It's amusing me that Speaker Boehner is still going to need a lot of Democratic votes to pass legislation in the future even though his majority will have expanded following the recent election. Boehner needs Democratic votes because there is a significantly large wingnut caucus in the House for whom no piece of legislation is conservative enough.
Mitch McConnell will face a similar dilemma in the Senate where he will need a handful of Democratic votes to pass anything.