President Obama will be visiting several major Spanish-speaking networks this week as he attempts to garner more public support while the House mulls over the Senate's immigration reform proposal on the table.
According to Politico, Univision and Telemundo, two of the most recognizable Spanish-speaking television networks, have booked interviews with President Obama, which will air on Tuesday night.
Following his call for the Republican-controlled House to pass the Senate's immigration bill during his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama will again focus on the legislation—which calls for stronger border provisions and a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.—during the interviews with the Spanish networks.
The interviews will take place in the White House with stations from Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and New York, according to the Associated Press.
According to White House press secretary Jay Carney, President Obama will touch on several critical themes of the argument for passing the legislation during the interviews—particularly, the economic benefits being touted by supporters of the bill.
"He'll talk about the enormous benefits of immigration reform; economic benefits which were made clear by the [Congressional Budget Office], as well as all the other benefits to our businesses, to the rule of law, to the capacity for our country to continue to generate innovative ideas and entrepreneurial advances," Carney told The Hill.com.
The series of interviews arrives on the heels of Republicans in the House last week, including House Speaker John Boehner, telling reporters that the House's GOP caucus would not support the Senate's immigration proposal as it stands.
"We cannot fix with laws things the president refuses to do," U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a vocal opponent of the bill, said on "Fox News Sunday." Rep. King explained that even with the provisions for border security, the Obama administration would not be able to enforce them.
However, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the "Gang of Eight" bipartisan senate panel that crafted the bill, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that some of those opposing the bill may never be satisfied with the level of border security, and that immigration reform could not be achieved in the House by a Republican conference.
"We started this debate, started this conversation among Democrats and Republicans, with two basic understandings - first, a path at the citizenship," Durbin said. "Folks have to come forward and register, pay their taxes, pay a fine, be monitored to make sure they have no criminal background that troubles us. Give them a chance for 10 years to pay taxes and not receive government benefits and then an opportunity of the three-year path to legalization. ... It's certainly not amnesty.
While President Obama has been addressing the immigration reform issue more publicly in the last few days, it is unclear if he will be making a stronger and more frequent public push for the bill in the coming weeks and months—something that some supporters of the bill have cautioned him against, for fear that he could further entrench Republican opposition to the legislation on the table.
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