Obama Urges Action on Immigration Reform - East Idaho News
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Obama Urges Action on Immigration Reform

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GETTY 6713 Obama?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1370976560206JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty ImagesUPDATE: In a major procedural vote the Senate has voted 82-15 to begin a floor debate on immigration reform. 

(WASHINGTON) — Seeking to spur momentum behind efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration system, President Obama on Tuesday urged lawmakers to support a “common-sense, bipartisan bill” just hours before a key Senate vote, saying “Congress needs to act. And that moment is now.”

“If you’re serious about actually fixing the system, then this is the vehicle to do it,” Obama said in a White House ceremony, surrounded by law enforcement representatives, business and labor leaders, and Republican and Democratic elected officials who are all also calling on the Senate to act.

“There is 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, to business owners, to legal immigrants,” he said, as he warned against those trying to “gin up fear and create division.”

The president called for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform by the end of the summer, something House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would also like to see.

“I think by the end of the year, we could have a bill,” Boehner told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America.

The president stressed that the current system fails to embrace the vast economic potential of undocumented individuals studying in the U.S.

“Our immigration system invites the best and the brightest from all over the world to come and study at our top universities and then once they finish, once they’ve got the training they need to build a new invention or create a new business, our system too often tells them, go back home, so that other countries can reap the benefits, the new jobs, the new businesses, the new industries,” he said. “That’s not smart. But that’s the broken system we have today.”

The Senate holds procedural votes Tuesday afternoon and is poised to begin debate on the bipartisan legislation. The bill under review would provide a pathway to earned citizenship for the roughly 11 million undocumented individuals currently living in the U.S., but only after improvements are made to border security.

“That pathway is arduous,” Obama explained. “You got to pass background checks. You got to learn English. You got to pay taxes and a penalty. And then you’ve got to go to the back of the line behind everybody who’s done things the right way and have tried to come here legally. So this won’t be a quick process…This is no cake walk.”

“And if passed, the Senate bill, as currently written and as hitting the floor, would put in place the toughest border enforcement plan that America has ever seen. So nobody’s taking border enforcement lightly. That’s part of this bill,” he added.

Obama admitted the bill is not perfect and that it will require sacrifice on both sides of the aisle. “It’s a compromise,” he said. “And going forward, nobody’s going to get everything that they want — not Democrats, not Republicans, not me. But this is a bill that’s largely consistent with the principles that I and people on this stage have laid out for common-sense reform.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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