\"Congress now has the opportunity to advance responsible immigration reform that puts American jobs and American security first,\" Trump said in his statement today, going on to tout the Raise Act, introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., which would change the immigration system to prioritize high-skilled English-speaking immigrants.

Asked at Tuesday's White House press briefing why Sessions was the person to make the announcement rather than the president himself, press secretary Sarah Sanders characterized the plan as a \"legal decision\" that would fall to the attorney general.

\"It would be the Department of Justice to make a legal recommendation and that's what they did,\" said Sanders, later adding, \"This was a legal issue because there was a court decision that had to be made.\"

Sanders further addressed the possibility of Congress being unable to reach a permanent solution on the matter by March 5, the end date set by the administration's phase-out plan, saying, \"If Congress doesn't want to do the job that they were elected to do, then maybe they should get out of the way and let someone else do it.\"

Congress has been struggling for years to pass legislation that would overhaul the country's immigration system, with the most recent attempt in 2013. That immigration bill — drafted by eight Republican and Democratic senators, known as the Gang of Eight — which would have given millions of unauthorized immigrants a path to citizenship, passed the Senate but failed in the House.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl and John Santucci contributed to this report.

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