The proposed immigration reform proposal has passed its test in the Senate, but with what is sure to be a stiff battle lying ahead in the House this summer, President Obama and other supporters have issued another public push for Congress to pass the bill.
On Saturday, President Obama, speaking at a press conference in South Africa, urged the House, which is controlled by Republicans, to pass the immigration proposal which the Senate approved last week. The bill would grant a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., as well as bolstering border security as one of the conditions for immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
"I do urge the House to try to get this done before the August recess," President Obama said. "There's more than enough time. This thing's been debated amply and they've got a number of weeks to get it done. Now's the time."
"One thing I know about why the United States is admired around the world is that people understand the United States is a nation of immigrants. Like South Africa, we're a multi-cultural, multi-racial nation and that makes us stronger. Our diversity is a source of strength. We need to get this right," the president added.
However, passing the bill will not be an easy fight, as top Republicans in the House have voiced their opposition to passing the immigration reform. The last time Republicans mobilized in one of the two major branches of Congress was at the Senate in 2007, when Republicans struck down a House-backed immigration reform proposal backed by President Bush.
On Sunday, legislators took to the airwaves as they argued their cases for and against the bill's passage at the House this time around.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," predicted that if Republicans in the House block provisions allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens, it could create such a divide between the GOP and minorities, such as the growing Latino voting population, that Republicans would never win a presidential election.
Latinos last November helped President Obama win critical swing states such as Florida and Colorado, which have heavy Hispanic populations, thanks to the record number of Latino voters that rejected GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the polls. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, promised stricter immigration laws as part of his campaign.
Still, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) who heads the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" that he could not foresee the passage of an immigration bill that included "a special pathway to citizenship where people who are here unlawfully get something that people who have worked for decades to immigrate lawfully do not have."
However, Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) the latter part of the bipartisan Senate group that proposed the bill, argued that the GOP's blocking of the bill would doom the Republicans among minority voters.
"No Democrat will vote for any bill without a path to citizenship," Sen. Schumer told "Fox News Sunday."
"We wouldn't even be where we are right now had it not been that 70 percent of Hispanics voted for President Obama, voted Democratic in the last election," Pelosi said. "That caused an epiphany in the Senate, that's for sure. So, all of a sudden now, we have already passed comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate. That's a big victory."
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