Obama Urges Congress To Pass Immigration Reform

In his weekly address, United States President Barack Obama urges Congress to pass immigration reform.

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JUNE 8, 2013) (WHITEHOUSE.GOV) -  President Barack Obama urged Congress Saturday (June 8) to pass the immigration bill put before the Senate.

The U.S. Senate plunged into the contentious issue of overhauling America's immigration rules on Friday (June 9), with a vote expected by the end of June on legislation that could define Obama's final years in office.The "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act," a nearly 900-page reworking of the 27-year-old U.S. immigration law, faces a tough fight in the Democratic-held Senate and an even harder battle in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives later this year.

"The bill before the Senate isn't perfect. It's a compromise. Nobody will get everything they want - not Democrats, not Republicans, not me. But it is a bill that's largely consistent with the principles I've repeatedly laid out for commonsense immigration reform," Obama said during his weekly address.

At its core is a plan to move 11 million people living in the United States illegally - many of whom came from Mexico years ago - onto a 13-year path to citizenship.

At the same time, the legislation would spend around $6 billion more to strengthen border security and change the way temporary visas are issued, putting more emphasis on helping U.S. farmers and high-tech industries get foreign labor.

The bill is problematic for many Senate Republicans, who see it as rewarding people who broke the law by entering the United States illegally.

The obstacles the bill faces were apparent in the House on Thursday (June 07), when Republicans narrowly won passage of legislation encouraging deportations of young illegal immigrants brought into the United States by their parents. A year ago, Obama acted to temporarily suspend deportations of such people, some of whom were infants when they arrived.

"This bill would modernize the legal immigration system so that, alongside training American workers for the jobs of tomorrow, we're also attracting highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will grow our economy. And so that our people don't have to wait years before their loved ones are able to join them in this country we love.

That's what immigration reform looks like. Smarter enforcement. A pathway to earned citizenship. Improvements to the legal immigration system. They're all commonsense steps. They've got broad support - from Republicans and Democrats, CEOs and labor leaders, law enforcement and clergy. So there is no reason that Congress can't work together to send a bill to my desk by the end of the summer," Obama said.

The immigration legislation represents a big test for the highly polarized and unpopular Congress, which has been unable to handle even basic chores, like agreeing to a federal budget.

It may be an even bigger test for Obama, who earlier this year failed to get theSenate to approve another major legislative objective, a crackdown on gun violence.

Backers of the Senate bill were confident it would be approved by the upper house within a few weeks, putting the onus on the House to tackle the immigration overhaul, a top issue with Hispanic voters who mainly backed Obama in last year's Presidential election.