L.A. Mayor offers praise, but no punditry, for Obama's immigration move

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cheered President Barack Obama's announcement Friday that his administration will halt the deportation of as many as 800,000 young undocumented immigrants—but refused to comment on the potential political impact of the decision.

"I don't want to talk about the political impact. You can get that from a pundit," the mayor told reporters. He was speaking on a conference call arranged by the Obama campaign to assail Mitt Romney's bus tour.

"This is the right thing to do. I applaud the president for doing it. And I think it's going to mean a great deal to the families who live in terror that their kids may get deported through no fault of their own," Villaraigosa said on the call. "I couldn't be prouder of the president in making this decision."

Villaraigosa also refused to be drawn into a discussion of the timing of the announcement, specifically why Obama could not have acted years ago. "That's a question for the president or the administration. It's not a question that I can answer. I can only applaud the president for once again standing up for the courage of his convictions and doing what's right by our values," the mayor said.