Barack Obama made a fresh push for comprehensive immigration reform on Saturday, calling for the public to back a Senate bill which he claimed will save the country money in the long term.
"Reach out to your senators and representatives. Tell them that the time for excuses is over. It's time to fix our broken immigration system once and for all," the president said in his weekly address, on whitehouse.gov.
The bipartisan bill aims to improve border security, attract more highly-skilled workers by changing the visa system, crack down on the hiring of undocumented workers and provide a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Obama cited a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which estimated last Tuesday that the bill would decrease federal budget deficits by nearly $200bn between 2014 and 2023 and by an extra $700bn in the following decade.
"According to this independent report, reforming our immigration system would reduce our deficits by almost a trillion dollars over the next two decades. And it will boost our economy by more than 5%, in part because of businesses created, investments made, and technologies invented by immigrants," he said.
However, the report's figures drew sceptical comments from Republicans. The CBO also estimated that under the bill "the net annual flow of unauthorised residents would decrease by about 25% relative to what would occur under current law". That is not a big enough reduction for conservatives seeking much tighter border control as part of the reforms.
Obama said: "The bill isn't perfect. It's a compromise. Nobody is going to get everything they want, not Democrats, not Republicans, not me."
The bill was given new impetus on Thursday after an amendment was proposed by two Republican senators, to almost double the number of border patrol agents to 40,000, add fencing and increase the use of surveillance technology. There are already twice as many border patrol agents as there were in 2004, but the amendment may prove palatable to conservatives.
The Senate could hold its first vote on the plans on Monday.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Barack Obama calls for public to back bipartisan Senate immigration reform
Barack Obama made a fresh push for comprehensive immigration reform on Saturday, calling for the public to back a Senate bill which he claimed will save the country money in the long term.
"Reach out to your senators and representatives. Tell them that the time for excuses is over. It's time to fix our broken immigration system once and for all," the president said in his weekly address, on whitehouse.gov.
The bipartisan bill aims to improve border security, attract more highly-skilled workers by changing the visa system, crack down on the hiring of undocumented workers and provide a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Obama cited a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which estimated last Tuesday that the bill would decrease federal budget deficits by nearly $200bn between 2014 and 2023 and by an extra $700bn in the following decade.
"According to this independent report, reforming our immigration system would reduce our deficits by almost a trillion dollars over the next two decades. And it will boost our economy by more than 5%, in part because of businesses created, investments made, and technologies invented by immigrants," he said.
However, the report's figures drew sceptical comments from Republicans. The CBO also estimated that under the bill "the net annual flow of unauthorised residents would decrease by about 25% relative to what would occur under current law". That is not a big enough reduction for conservatives seeking much tighter border control as part of the reforms.
Obama said: "The bill isn't perfect. It's a compromise. Nobody is going to get everything they want, not Democrats, not Republicans, not me."
The bill was given new impetus on Thursday after an amendment was proposed by two Republican senators, to almost double the number of border patrol agents to 40,000, add fencing and increase the use of surveillance technology. There are already twice as many border patrol agents as there were in 2004, but the amendment may prove palatable to conservatives.
The Senate could hold its first vote on the plans on Monday.
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