President Obama focuses on immigration reform

President Obama and members of his cabinet and senior staff met with a group of business, law enforcement, faith, and former and current elected leaders on April 19 to hear their ideas and suggestions on how to resolve the challenge of fixing the country’s immigration system. The President listened to stakeholders describe a variety of problems that result from the system.
He reiterated his disappointment that Congressional action on immigration reform has stalled and that the DREAM Act failed to pass in the U.S. Senate after passing with a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House in December. He said the only way to fix what’s broken about the immigration system is through legislative action in Congress.
He plans to continue to work to forge bipartisan consensus and will intensify efforts to lead a civil debate on this issue in the coming weeks and months. He urged meeting participants to take a public and active role to lead a constructive and civil debate on the need to fix the immigration system.