President Obama Vows to Bring Up Immigration Reform Again

by Kimberly Schwandt
April 19, 2011

President Obama is hosting meeting on immigration reform at the White House Tuesday afternoon, signaling he's taking steps to get the issue moving again.

Obama said that an immigration reform bill is not dead yet.

"The question is going to be, are we going to be able to find some Republicans who can partner with me and others to get this done once and for all instead of using it as a political football," he said in an interview with local Dallas station WFAA Monday night.

The president will have a bi-partisan group of faith, business and law enforcement, and former and current officials to discuss the issue. Attendees included New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Former Bush administration Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff former GOP Florida Senator Mel Martinez, and Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey, an aide tells Fox News.

The White House said they'd be discussing "the importance of fixing our nation's broken immigration system to meet our 21st century economic and national security needs so that America can win the future."

Just last month the president sent a warning to Republican lawmakers, especially on how immigration will have an impact in the voting booth. "[P]erhaps some of my Republican friends are gonna start recognizing, if they looked at the last census, that they are gonna have a very hard time winning any elections if they continue to deliberately target anti-immigration sentiment," the president said in an interview with CNN en Espanol.

Former Bush administration senior adviser and Fox news contributor Karl Rove says Republicans need to tread the issue carefully. "[The] GOP will get short term range, long term pain if they come out looking like anti-latino," Rove said. He added that he didn't think Republicans or the president would actually be able to bring it up.

The president tried to push for immigration reform in his first two years in office, but was unable to get anything passed. Former President George W. Bush had also tried for reform, but was not able to get a bill through Congress either.

The administration says its policy is focused on securing borders, strengthening economic competitiveness, streamlining the legal immigration system and new enforcement strategies of those convicted of serious crimes, giving accountability to law-breaking businesses and for those living here illegally.

Obama said one of the biggest disappointments his first year in office was not passing the DREAM Act, which allows children of illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military to gain citizenship. It failed a vote just before Christmas and Obama has vowed to bring up the issue again.

A couple of weeks ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Senate Democrats sent a letter to the president saying he could bypass Congress and use executive or administrative route to get it through.

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