By 2014, immigration activists began putting greater pressure on Obama to take executive action to help more families. "When Boehner pulled out of the process, that's when there was a total focus on the President, because the legislative door had been shut," Clarissa Martínez, of La Raza, said. The White House felt the heat. "There was a period in 2014 when the immigration activists gave up on Congress and said it's now on the President," the former White House aide said. "They started calling him Deporter-in-Chief. The President brought them all in. He said by criticizing him they were letting the Republicans off the hook. He said he needed more time. He said, ‘I will do everything I can at the end of the summer.' " But Democratic Senate candidates in competitive races, like Kay Hagan, in North Carolina, implored the White House not to take any controversial steps on immigration before the midterm elections. Obama agreed; activists seethed; virtually all the Democratic candidates, including Hagan, lost anyway.
