Obama on immigration reform: The 'moment is now'

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama prodded Congress Tuesday to send him a bill by autumn remaking U.S. nation's immigration laws...

Adam Howard

Jun 11, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama prodded Congress Tuesday to send him a bill by autumn remaking U.S. nation’s immigration laws, even as the Senate prepared to cast its first floor votes on the landmark measure opening a door to citizenship for millions.

Obama’s objective is to make overhaul of the immigration system the major accomplishment of the first year of his second term in office before political attention shifts to next year’s congressional elections.

“Congress needs to act, and that moment is now, ” Obama said, surrounded by immigration advocates, business and religious leaders, law enforcement officials and others in the White House.

“There’s no reason Congress can’t get this done by the end of the summer,” the president said. “There’s no good reason to play procedural games or engage in obstruction just to block the best chance we’ve had in years to address this problem in a way that’s fair to middle class families, business owners and legal immigrants.”

The Senate was set to vote Tuesday on a pair of procedural measures to officially allow debate to move forward on the far-reaching legislation. The measure would boost border security and workplace enforcement, allow tens of thousands new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, and create a 13-year path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Both votes were expected to succeed by comfortable margins, because even some senators with deep misgivings about the immigration bill said the issue deserved a Senate debate.

Ahead of the votes, senators were readying amendments on contentious issues including border security, back taxes and health care coverage. Some Republicans said they were seeking to strengthen enforcement provisions so that they could be comfortable voting for the bill. Other Republican measures were already being dismissed by Democrats as attempts to kill the bill by striking at the fragile compromises at its core.

Meanwhile the Republican leader of the House, Speaker John Boehner, made his most positive comments to date on the issue, saying Tuesday he thinks there is a good chance that legislation can be signed into law “by the end of the year.”

The way forward in the House remains unclear, because the chamber is dominated by conservatives many of whom view a path to citizenship as amnesty. But Boehner said he hopes for committee action by the end of June.

As debate opened Tuesday in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said the bill written by a so-called Gang of Eight — four Republicans and four Democrats — would need stronger provisions on security along the Mexican border and other issues to earn his support.

“The Gang of Eight has done its work. Now it’s time for the Gang of 100 to do its work — for the entire Senate to have its say on this issue, and see if we can do something to improve the status quo,” McConnell said. “At the risk of stating the obvious, this bill has serious flaws.”

Nonetheless McConnell said he intended to vote to allow the debate to go forward. The real fights will come in the days and weeks ahead as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, aims to push the bill to final Senate passage before July 4.

Heated debate is anticipated on the border security elements of the bill. The bill sets up a system wherein immigrants may only begin taking steps toward citizenship once certain border security requirements are met. But opponents say those “triggers” aren’t strong enough.