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Obama Presses Immigration Bill as Senate Opens Debate Obama Presses Immigration Bill as Senate Opens Debate
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — With the Senate starting to cast votes on a bill to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, President Obama on Tuesday made a high-profile pitch for the legislation, saying, “There’s no reason Congress can’t get this done by the end of summer.” WASHINGTON — As the Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to begin debating a new immigration measure, President Obama offered a wholehearted endorsement of the bipartisan proposal, which presents him with a chance to reach the kind of landmark accord with Republicans that has eluded him on the budget and gun violence.
“If you’re serious about actually fixing the system, then this is the vehicle to do it,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at the White House. “If you’re not serious about it, if you think that a broken system is the best America can do, then I guess it makes sense to try to block it.” For Mr. Obama, who has picked his shots in the immigration debate to avoid stirring partisan anger on Capitol Hill, it was a moment of promise and peril. While he threw his weight behind the bill, he conceded that it would not satisfy all sides and said he anticipated a bruising fight over issues like border security and the path to citizenship.
It was a carefully choreographed appearance by the president, who has tended to keep a low profile on the immigration issue to avoid stirring partisan opposition on Capitol Hill to a bill that many Republicans regard as crucial to the long-term fortunes of their party. But it also underscored, as Mr. Obama said, that the debate had reached a critical moment. The president, however, may have more leverage than in previous battles, not least because many Republicans believe rewriting the immigration laws is critical for the long-term viability of their party given the nation’s demographic shifts, even if doing so risks alienating parts of their base.
Standing in the East Room, Mr. Obama was surrounded by proponents of new immigration laws, including law enforcement officers, business and labor leaders, and young people who would be beneficiaries of the Dream Act, which would provide residency to people who arrived in the United States as minors if they acquired a higher education. Republican willingness to weigh significant changes in immigration policy was evident in the 84-to-15 vote to begin what is expected to be a monthlong debate on the bill, a lopsided majority that comprised 52 Democrats, 2 independents and 30 Republicans. The opponents were all Republicans.
“This bill isn’t perfect; it’s a compromise,” the president said. “And going forward, nobody is going to get everything they want. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not me.” Advocates hailed the vote as an encouraging sign for the measure’s eventual passage. But Senate veterans warned that the procedural victory did not preclude Republicans from ultimately rejecting the legislation, which would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million people who are in the country illegally.
Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, took to morning television to weigh in on the debate. He said he feared that the Senate bill “doesn’t go far enough.” “This bill isn’t perfect; it’s a compromise,” the president said at a carefully choreographed White House appearance with advocates of reform. “Going forward, nobody is going to get everything they want. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not me.”
Speaking on “Good Morning America” on ABC, Mr. Boehner said he had “real concerns with the Senate bill,” especially on border security and internal enforcement, and he pointed to a similar, nearly parallel process occurring in the House. Though the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, often an impediment to Democratic initiatives, voted to allow debate, he said he would vote against the bill unless major changes were made. “These include, but are not limited to, the areas of border security, government benefits, and taxes,” he said.
Mr. Boehner’s remarks came hours before the Senate voted to begin debate on the immigration overhaul. The House speaker, John A. Boehner, said he feared that the Senate bill “doesn’t go far enough.” Speaking on ABC News before the vote, Mr. Boehner said he had “real concerns with the Senate bill,” especially on border security and internal enforcement.
Speaking on the floor Tuesday morning, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said that he believed that the nation’s immigration system needed to be fixed, and that he would not prevent the legislation from coming to the floor. A vote to allow a debate is no guarantee of a bill’s passage: the Senate cleared that threshold on legislation to tighten the nation’s gun laws, but its key provision, to tighten background checks on gun buyers, still went down to defeat. At the same time, this procedural vote was larger than one in 2007, when the Senate last debated immigration reform, and Mr. Obama was clearly determined to seize the moment.
“I haven’t met anybody who thinks the current immigration system is working,” Mr. McConnell said. “And as an elected leader in my party, it is my view that at least we need to try to improve the situation that as far as I can tell very few people believe is working well.” “If you’re serious about actually fixing the system, then this is the vehicle to do it,” Mr. Obama declared. “If you’re not serious about it, if you think that a broken system is the best America can do, then I guess it makes sense to try to block it.”
Mr. McConnell, however, said that while the legislation drafted by a bipartisan group of eight senators was worth at least debating, he believed it needed to be strengthened. Speaking in the East Room, Mr. Obama surrounded himself with supporters of the bill, including the former police chief in Los Angeles and New York, William J. Bratton; Thomas J. Donahue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Julián Castro, the mayor of San Antonio; Steve Case, an entrepreneur and a founder of AOL; and Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
“Now it’s time for the Gang of 100 to do its work,” he said, “for the entire Senate to have its say on the issue and see if we can improve the status quo.” While Mr. Obama speaks about the need to overhaul the immigration system at schools and factories across the country, the East Room event was his most concerted push for it since he spoke in Las Vegas in January, around the time a group of Republican and Democratic senators presented a draft framework for legislation.
That speech, analysts said, drew a positive response from some influential Republican lawmakers and the White House appeared to be trying to replicate the experience. But they warned not to overestimate Mr. Obama’s role in the debate now.
“It propels it forward, but this has already got a lot of juice,” said Angela Maria Kelley, an expert on immigration at the Center for American Progress. “In the Senate, there’s a lot of clarity about people’s positions.”
Other experts said Mr. Obama had learned from hard experience during the health care and budget debates about the right time to lay low and the right time to insert himself in the process.
“There’s no question that the president has a delicate dance,” said Ben Johnson, the executive director of the American Immigration Council. “He’s got to strike the right tone and the right balance of using the office effectively and not trampling on the process that’s currently under way.”
A senior White House official said Mr. Obama’s involvement was important because the bill’s success would hinge on winning the support of Hispanic voters, and “there is no Republican with the credibility to sell this to that community, only the president can.”
On Tuesday, though, senators seemed more immersed in their own debate than in reacting to Mr. Obama.
“Well he doesn’t vote in the Senate anymore, so right now we’re just focused on getting it passed in the Senate in a responsible way,” said Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who was one of the architects of the bill and is one of his party’s most prominent Hispanics.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said the Democrats “promised immigration reform in 2009, they didn’t deliver, so they need to step up to the plate there.”
Another member of the so-called Gang of Eight behind the bill, Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, said Mr. Obama’s remarks echoed the principles in the legislation, but added of Republicans, “Some of them have Obamaphobia, so no matter what he does, they won’t be happy.”
Mr. Boehner said he expected that the “House bill will be to the right of where the Senate is,” but he would not say whether he expected any legislation that came out of the House to include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Obama, in an attempt to allay fears about immigration changes, noted that the bill before the Senate included the tightest border control provisions in American history. He said twice that illegal crossings were “near their lowest levels in decades.”Mr. Obama, in an attempt to allay fears about immigration changes, noted that the bill before the Senate included the tightest border control provisions in American history. He said twice that illegal crossings were “near their lowest levels in decades.”
But the president also insisted on a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — a provision that has continued to be a sticking point between the senators who drafted the legislation and conservative Republicans, especially in the House. But the president also insisted on a path to citizenship for immigrants here illegally — a provision that has continued to be a sticking point between the senators who drafted the legislation and conservative Republicans, especially in the House, who believe that approach represents amnesty for those who broke the law to enter or stay in the country.
The process, he said, would be long and arduous, requiring people to pay taxes as well as a penalty, learn English, and then go to the back of the line behind applicants for American citizenship who entered the country lawfully. The average wait would be 13 years, he said.The process, he said, would be long and arduous, requiring people to pay taxes as well as a penalty, learn English, and then go to the back of the line behind applicants for American citizenship who entered the country lawfully. The average wait would be 13 years, he said.
“This is no cakewalk,” he said, “but it’s the only way we can make sure that everyone who’s here is playing by the same rules.”“This is no cakewalk,” he said, “but it’s the only way we can make sure that everyone who’s here is playing by the same rules.”
Mr. Boehner said on “Good Morning America” that he expected that the “House bill will be to the right of where the Senate is,” but he would not say whether he expected any legislation that came out of the House to include a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country, as the Senate bill does. He also declined to comment on whether he would bring for a vote an immigration bill that did not have the support of a majority of his conference and would need the help of Democrats to pass — something he has already done, to criticism, several times this year on other issues.
That situation, Mr. Boehner said, seems unlikely. “I don’t believe that will be the case,” he said.
Among those standing on the dais with Mr. Obama were Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Julián Castro, the mayor of San Antonio; Steve Case, an entrepreneur and a founder of America Online; William J. Bratton, a former police chief in New York and Los Angeles, and Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Mr. Obama was introduced by Tolu Olubunmi, a Nigerian-American, who said she was at the White House “as a direct result of the fervent prayers of my father and bold action by the president.”