President Barack Obama addressed and answered questions on immigration Nashville, Tennessee, a location he viewed as "one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the country."

Obama spoke on Tuesday about clarification to his immigration executive actions and recognized it isn't only Latinos that will affect people from Bangladesh, Nepal, Laos and Somalia. Obama also noted Nashville was home of the largest Kurdish community.

"I still believe that the best way to solve this -- is by working together to pass the kind of common-sense law that was passed in the Senate," said Obama. "But until then, there are actions that I have the legal authority to take that will help make our immigration system smarter and fairer. And I took those actions last month."

Obama acknowledged his immigration executive actions from Nov. 20, including adding additional resources at the border, focusing resources on suspected criminal immigrants and having undocumented immigrants "play by the rules" by passing criminal background checks, paying taxes and contributing more to the economy.

"So this isn't amnesty, or legalization, or even a path to citizenship. That can only be done by Congress. It doesn't apply to anybody who's come to this country recently, or who might come illegally in the future. What it does is create a system of accountability, a common-sense, middle-ground approach," said Obama.

Obama said his executive actions have similarities to actions conducted by previous presidents regardless of political party affiliation. Obama acknowledged he has the authority to conduct the actions he did on Nov. 20 and pressed on Congress to pass a bill.

"If you want Congress to be involved in this process, I welcome it, but you've got to pass a bill that addresses the various components of immigration reform in a common-sense way," said Obama, adding he will erase some of his executive actions if comprehensive immigration reform is passed.

Obama said the immigration debate should not prevent actions on other issues.

"As a country, we have had these concerns since the Irish and Italians and Poles were coming to Boston and New York, and we have the same concerns when Chinese and Japanese Americans were traveling out West," said Obama.

Obama answered questions by the Nashville town hall attendees. The first question was about the next administration's option to not renew the Nov. 20 executive actions. Obama said the next presidential administration could reverse his policies, but any future administration "would not have the support of the American people" if the executive actions are annulled.

"It still is important for us, though, because this is temporary to make sure that we keep pushing for comprehensive immigration reform," said Obama. "Without an actual law, an actual statute passed by Congress, it's true that theoretically a future administration could do something that I think would be very damaging. It's not likely, politically, that they'd reverse everything that we've done, but it could be that some people then end up being in a disadvantageous position. And nobody is going to have a path to actual citizenship until we get a law passed."

Obama was also asked regarding the more than 5 million undocumented immigrants not affected by his Nov. 20 executive actions and ensure undocumented immigrants are confident to apply for the expanded Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Availability (DAPA) programs.

For the undocumented immigrants not eligible for DACA or DAPA, Obama said their odds of deportation is still "less likely" compared to the past. Obama said building trust "will take time" but it is up to the undocumented immigrant to have the confidence to apply for programs such as DACA and DAPA. Obama said not 100 percent of the undocumented immigrant youth originally signed up for DACA in when it was created, by executive action, in 2012. He added, "But we got more than half of the people who were qualified signing up, and slowly then, each person who has the courage to sign up, that creates more confidence across the board."

Obama noted undocumented immigrants who are in the process of receiving legal permanent authorization or citizenship should not abandon their plans for either DACA or DAPA.

Obama was asked why undocumented immigrant parents of DACA recipients were not included in his executive actions. Obama explained his executive actions were "bound" by the legal authority the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice determined for him.

"It was not because we did not care about those parents," said Obama, but cited legal constraints.

Throughout the town hall meeting, Obama further urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which could have language to include protection for DACA recipients' parents.

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