Senate Democrats on Monday expressed support for President Barack Obama's planned executive action on immigration amid fierce Republican dissent and threats of GOP bills aimed at blocking the administration.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), together with top fellow Democrats, sent the president a two-page letter signifying their support, urging him to exercise executive authority in as much as he can for the improvement of the U.S. immigration system.

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Democrats called on Obama to expand the deferred action program known as DACA, to include immigrants with strong ties to the U.S. and those with no serious criminal offenses. The program essentially grants recipients a two-year deportation relief and work authorization.

The letter, also signed by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), follows a similar one sent by 117 House Democrats last week.

Obama initially planned to announce unilateral action at summer's end but had decided to delay action for about three months to accommodate Democratic candidates campaigning for the midterms. But with Democrats losing control of the Senate, the Republican Party stands to lead both chambers of Congress come January.

GOP-elect lawmakers are wasting no time mulling over options for blocking unilateral action, among the most drastic of which includes the shutting down of parts of the federal government.

Last week, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner warned the administration against pursuing with executive action, saying that doing so would destroy any possibility of a compromise on the issue.

The GOP will fight "tooth and nail" if Obama decides to move forward, Boehner said.

Menendez has said that the Republicans' accusation that Obama was "poisoning the well" for future legislation on immigration reform was outrageous, given that House Republicans had failed to pass any legislation in the past session, NBC News relayed.

Obama had held off taking executive action at the time in the hopes that the House would pass its own legislation.

TagsExecutive action, Barack Obama, Democrat, Republican, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, harry reid, Immigration Reform