Obama urges overhaul to immigration

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has renewed calls to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, saying a failure to do so would lead to ''misguided'' efforts such as legislation just passed in Arizona.

That state's legislature passed a bill that would make it a state crime to be in the US illegally and require police to determine the immigration status of anyone suspected of being in the country without proper documentation.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law at a ceremony early yesterday.

At a White House naturalisation ceremony for 24 members of the US military, Mr Obama said: ''Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona.''

Mrs Brewer said she expected the measure to face constitutional challenges. The bill sparked protests in the state, where Census Bureau figures show about a quarter of the population is of Hispanic descent. Arizona shares a border with Mexico and has an estimated 460,000 residents living there illegally, the seventh-highest total in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr Obama said the actions by the Arizona legislature threatened ''to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans''. It could also hamper trust between residents and law enforcement authorities, he said.

He said he had instructed US authorities to monitor the state's actions and to ''examine the civil rights and other implications'' of the legislation.

The President's comments came at a naturalisation ceremony for 24 US soldiers from 16 countries who took the oath to become citizens.

Democratic congressional leaders have said an overhaul of US immigration law could advance through Congress this year if Senate majority leader Harry Reid could pick up enough Republican support to get it through.

The last attempt to revamp the law to create a guest worker program and provide a path to citizenship for some of those living in the US illegally was in 2007.

That was blocked amid opposition from Republicans and some Democrats.

''Surely we can all agree that when 11 million people in our country are living here illegally, outside the system, that's unacceptable,'' Mr Obama said.

''The American people demand and deserve a solution.''