Very few people see the President prepare for a big speech.

He's energetic, but calm. He'll walk over, take a look at the space where he'll be speaking, and sit quietly as he reads through his remarks. Sometimes, he'll make small changes up until the very end.

Last night, we went behind the scenes to capture what that looks like.

Take a look and see for yourself what President Obama was thinking about just an hour and a half before he addressed the nation on immigration:

The President is acting on his own to help fix our immigration system because he knows this debate deserves something better than politics as usual.

And the plan he laid out last night addresses as much of the problem as he can: It cracks down on illegal immigration at the border; prioritizes the deportation of felons, not families; and increases accountability so that more than 4 million undocumented immigrants have the opportunity to pay taxes and play by the rules.

Learn more about that plan here.

The actions the President is taking are a first step. Congress still has to finish this job -- they could even do it before the end of this year.