WASHINGTON (CNS) – President Barack Obama’s package of actions affecting millions of people without legal immigration status received support from Catholic organizations, labor unions and immigration advocates even as critics contended that the steps he announced violated the Constitution.

Advocates for the immigrant community, including national and international church agencies, continued their call for Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform that would include much of Obama’s executive action.

Among the supporters of Obama’s action was Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

He was joined by more than 200 people attending the archdiocese’s annual Catholic Legal Services banquet celebrating the accomplishments of immigrant Americans in greater Miami in watching the president’s televised speech. The response of the immigration lawyers in attendance was generally positive, he said.

“What President Obama did will provide relief for a significant number of people,” the archbishop said. “But it’s just that. It’s sort of like putting a Band-Aid on a wound. We still need Congress to act to provide comprehensive immigration reform. That’s the real solution.”

Archbishop Wenski urged critics in Congress to “take a deep breath and get control of themselves and enact comprehensive immigration reform.”

“They should be able to do that in a bipartisan way. What Obama did was provide relief for a significant number of people. But it’s not sufficient. He couldn’t do anything more than what he did. He did everything possible within his legal authority.”

Elsewhere, some of the most vocal reactions came from members of Congress. Predictably, the comments broke along party lines, and the debate among legislators on exactly what shape immigration reform will take will likely continue into the future.