Thursday, July 1, 2010

Obama Pledges to Push for Immigration System Overhaul

Obama Pledges to Push for Immigration System Overhaul (Update1)

By Roger Runningen and Nicholas Johnston

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his administration will push for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, saying the system is “fundamentally broken.”

“What we have made clear is that this administration will not just kick the can down the road,” Obama said in a speech at the American University School of International Service in Washington. “Immigration reform is no exception.”

Still, Obama said passing comprehensive reform would be impossible without Republican support. He needs at least 60 votes in the Senate to overcome Republican opposition and ensure a floor vote on legislation. Democrats control 58 seats.

Other major hurdles facing any overhaul effort this year are the midterm elections in November and a congressional agenda crowded with priorities such as confirming Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice, passing budget and spending bills, and final action on financial regulation overhaul.

The president has regularly pledged to tighten border security and revamp the nation’s immigration laws to deal with the millions of immigrants in the country illegally. He repeated that pledge in May during a state visit by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and earlier this week in a meeting with immigration groups.

Arizona Law

Calderon lobbied Obama for an immigration overhaul after Arizona passed a law cracking down on illegal immigrants. The law prompted nationwide demonstrations in the U.S. on both sides of the issue, and the Justice Department is reviewing the measure and may challenge it in court.

Obama today said the Arizona law has “the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents, making them subject to possible stops or questioning, because of what they look like, or how they sound.”

He rejected the notion of rounding up illegal immigrants, saying it would be “logistically impossible and wildly expensive.”

Obama said the legal immigration system “is as broken as the borders” because of backlogs and it “takes years” to process applications.

The politics of “who is allowed” in the U.S. has always been controversial, he said. “Our borders have been porous for decades” because we “don’t do a very good job” of tracking who is coming in.

‘A Mockery’

Still, he said, “the 11 million who broke these laws should be held accountable,” adding that the presence of so many undocumented people “makes a mockery of all those who are going through the process legally.”

He said the U.S. has “more boots on the ground” at the border than ever before.

The administration in May announced it would deploy as many as 1,200 National Guard troops and seek $500 million more in funding to help with security measures on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Congressional efforts in 2007 to pass immigration legislation failed because of disagreements over how to treat people who are in the U.S. illegally.

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