With an eye on the calendar while lawmakers are out of town for two weeks, President Obama on Monday used a White House ceremony welcoming 28 new U.S. citizens as a backdrop to urge Congress to take up immigration reform legislation next month.
“We’ve just got . . . to work up the political courage to do what’s required to be done,” the president said in the East Room. “I expect a bill to be put forward. I expect the debate to begin next month. I want to sign that bill into law as soon as possible.”
The president said earlier this year he would introduce his own immigration bill if Congress did not produce one. Since then, he’s awaited the unveiling of a bipartisan Senate reform measure that key negotiators, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, initially hoped to introduce in early March and recently said would emerge sometime after lawmakers return to Washington on April 6.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, has said the group has ironed out the majority of sticking points in drafting a bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, ensure border security, embrace a guest-worker program, and improve the existing immigration system so that it can support the changes reformers have in mind.
The administration has hailed recent comments by lawmakers -- those in favor of citizenship for illegal immigrants (which is the president’s goal), as well as legalization (the preference of some Senate conservatives) -- as evidence that a centerpiece of Obama’s second-term agenda will eventually reach the floors of the House and Senate, and could produce new law by the end of the year.
“There are bipartisan groups in both the House and the Senate working to tackle this challenge, and I applaud them for that,” Obama said as he headlined a naturalization ceremony that included active-duty military service members as well as civilians. “We are making progress, but we’ve got to finish the job, because this issue is not new. Everyone pretty much knows what’s broken. Everybody knows how to fix it,” he added.
A White House spokesman later told reporters the president continues to be encouraged about momentum, and was not expressing concerns that the bipartisan group of senators has taken too long to produce a bill.
Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy warned publicly that because the eight main drafters had missed the March window, his panel would not be able to mark it up until May at the earliest.
Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he encouraged Obama “for months” to introduce a bill the White House has written with input from lawmakers, outside groups and federal departments. “I understand he has delayed releasing it at the request of a few senators who are engaged in secret, closed-door discussions on their own proposal and who committed to completing it by the beginning of March. That deadline and others have come and gone,” Leahy said.
Six GOP senators on the Judiciary panel last week wrote the chairman seeking to slow the process with a request for additional time to “read and analyze” any immigration measure before it moves through the committee.
The White House last week said a delay of another few weeks before introduction of a Senate reform measure was not overly worrisome, and would not prompt Obama to unveil his own bill.
“We haven’t set a firm date,” Celcia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told ABC/Univision following a Washington luncheon last week, responding to a question about when a measure would get introduced. “The good news is that the Gang of Eight seems to be making progress. We are engaged with them. We are encouraged by their progress.”
Some reform advocates have sounded increasingly upbeat that 60 votes, or perhaps more, will turn up in the Senate for immigration changes that create a set pathway to citizenship, or a green card, within a chamber composed of 53 Democrats, 45 Republicans, and two independents who vote with the majority.
On Monday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration is “going to reserve judgment on the final product until it's presented, but we're pleased that they say that they're on track to present it shortly after they return from their Easter recess.”
