President Barack Obama is telling the American people that the time to change the nation's immigration system is now, and he's taking action to make that happen.

In a nationally televised address from the White House, Obama says it doesn't make sense to round up and deport millions of people living in the country illegally. He says his plan will let them come out of the shadows, but it's not anything close to amnesty.

Obama's plan will shield from deportation nearly 5 million immigrants now in the U.S. illegally.

Obama says that although there was a brief spike in unaccompanied children coming across the border over the summer, overall the number of people trying to cross the border illegally is at its lowest level since the 1970s.