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The president, in a push to get out the Latino vote, says Republicans in Congress have been a stumbling block. A recent poll showed Latinos generally unenthusiastic about the coming elections. In an effort to energize Latino voters, President Obama defended his administration’s efforts to work for a comprehensive immigration plan, while adding that he was frustrated by the failures of Congress to deal with the issue. In an interview with Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo, recorded when Obama was in Los Angeles last week, the president blamed Republicans for refusing to work on the needed legislation. As he has in the...

WASHINGTON — Religious leaders and lawmakers traded Scripture passages Wednesday at a congressional hearing on whether there's an ethical imperative to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. Arguing for a comprehensive immigration package with a guest-worker program, Richard Land , the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , quoted from Matthew, Leviticus and Micah in pressing for action on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.

The White House invited four of the country’s top evangelical pastors to attend President Obama’s speech this morning calling for immigration reform. ... The Rev. Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals. NAE is the nation’s largest evangelical group and has long sought to be a moderate evangelical alternative to the Christian Right. Dr. Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. ... worries that conservatives will burn bridges with the country’s fast-growing Hispanic bloc if they take a hard anti-immigrant line. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council. Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of the...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will give a major speech Thursday calling for action to fix America's broken immigration system, though few observers believe any major reform can pass this year. Obama will speak at American University in Washington in an effort to ignite new momentum behind the massive and politically problematic drive to secure US borders and deal with millions of illegal immigrants. "He thought this was a good time to talk plainly with the American people about his views on immigration," White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton said on Wednesday. "He thinks this debate is about accountability --...

In their desperation, President Obama and senators with large Latino populations in their states (like Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.) are seeking to polarize Hispanic and Anglo sentiment over the issue of illegal immigration. In his frequent messages calling for a higher Latino and black turnout and his condemnation of the Arizona immigration law, Obama is trying to recapture over immigration the voter approval he lost over health care. Arizona acted as it did because of a lack of federal enforcement of federal law barring undocumented immigrants. With a porous border, they felt that they were left no choice but to...

With immigration reform back on the front page thanks to Arizona's new controversial law, it's going to be very interesting to see how the Obama-loving press report what he did concerning this issue when he was a junior senator from Illinois in 2007. For instance, David Broder's "How Congress Botched Immigration Reform" published in Thursday's Washington Post didn't even mention Barack Obama's name. This seems particularly odd given this paragraph (h/t Jennifer Rubin): But once the bill hit the floor, it was attacked from both flanks. The most conservative Republicans -- Jim DeMint of South Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana...

Concerns are mounting that Senate Majority Leader Reid might try to advance a hastily drafted immigration reform bill to satisfy demands that legislation is introduced by May 1. Sources said such a move would be disruptive to business and labor groups, which resumed delicate negotiations Wednesday to find compromises on several issues, including how to bring workers into the country to meet labor needs. Talks had broken down last month but resumed in hopes of producing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would be introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Reid and congressional Democratic leaders are...

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to abandon his effort to push a climate and energy bill Saturday, saying he will only continue if Democratic leaders promise to relinquish plans to bring up immigration legislation first. Graham's departure, if he follows through on his ultimatum, would likely doom any chance of passing a climate bill this year. He is the sole Republican working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a compromise proposal which they had planned to unveil Monday. In a letter to leaders of the effort to enact climate and energy legislation, Graham wrote,...

Washington (CNN) -- The push for immigration reform may be on the front burner for congressional Democrats, but sources say that ultimately, they believe the issue is unlikely to have enough votes to pass. Democrats say the goal is to try to take it up in the Senate before discussing the Supreme Court nomination this summer and spend the rest of the session before the midterm election on the politically potent issue of jobs. One big reason for the immigration reform push, sources say, is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a brutal battle to win re-election in...

A top Senate negotiator on climate change believes that a sudden turn by Senate Democrats to immigration could “destroy” any hope of a major climate and energy bill this year. “This comes out of left field,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), after hearing that Democratic leaders may now push immigration reform ahead of a climate bill. “I’m working as earnestly as I can to craft climate and energy independence, clean air and jobs, and now we’re being told that we’re going to immigration. We haven’t done anything to prepare the body of the country for immigration.” “This destroys the ability...

A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) is arguably President Barack Obama’s biggest Democratic critic in Congress. And he’s not fond of Obama’s top advisers at the White House, either. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) member has strongly criticized the administration’s policy on deportation and questioned its commitment to far-reaching reform. Some Democrats have felt little urgency in pursuing the controversial issue, partly because they see no risk...

President Barack Obama called Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on Tuesday to gauge his support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a sign the White House is serious about pushing the issue in Congress this year. Obama’s outreach to Brown is part of a quickly hatched, coordinated effort with congressional leaders to thrust the volatile immigration debate back to the front burner. At a joint House and Senate leadership meeting late Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to House leaders that he would put an immigration bill on the floor this year—and he secured a commitment from House Speaker Nancy...

Senator Harry Reid retreated today from having the Senate move quickly on immigration law changes, saying any overhaul would have to wait.“We won’t get to immigration reform this work period,” Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada  and the majority leader, told reporters after the private weekly luncheon of Democratic senators.Over the weekend, Mr. Reid raised the hopes of immigration advocates by suggesting at a rally in Las Vegas that he was ready to put immigration on the legislative front burner now that health care legislation was out of the way and Congress was returning from a two-week break.“We’re going to come...

Las Vegan Antonio Manriquez stood on the steps of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse holding an American flag. Manriquez was one of nearly 3,500 immigration reform supporters who attended the Rally for America Saturday afternoon in downtown Las Vegas, which was hosted by Reform Immigration for America. The 45-year-old from Mexico City said he's an illegal immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. He said he attended rally to push for comprehensive immigration reform, support others who are in the country illegally and to no longer live in fear of being separated from his three children, all...

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, told an exuberant crowd at an immigration rally Saturday in Las Vegas that Congress would start work on immigration overhaul as soon as lawmakers return this week. “We’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now,” he said in a speech to more than 6,000 people, mostly immigrants. “We need to do this this year,” Reid said, drawing cheers from the crowd. Reid told the crowd he believes he has 56 Senate votes in support of the legislation. He outlined legislation that would include border security measures and a temporary guest worker program. To gain...

(snip) The Tucson paper's editorial board noted that he represents a border state affected by Washington's inaction. "Yes. Yes. I do. But so does the senator from New Mexico and the senators from California and all the border states all along. But it seems to me that the proposal should come, it's the obligation of the president of the United States to come forward with what he thinks is a proposal and then maybe we can all work together and get it resolved," he said. "So what have I done?" he added. "Not enough."Still, McCain said he expects to hold...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, are believed to be on the cusp of introducing a new bill in the Senate on Comprehensive immigration reform. The Schumer/Graham initiative combines enforcement with earned legal status for immigrants who are out of status or came in illegally. Washington sources say they are ready to introduce the bill "any day now."

McCAIN: My view is you need a physical fence. But we all know that unless physical fences are surveilled, and then people just punch holes in them. And so I saw in Iraq on my visit there that their ability to serveil areas is that we have the technology now. (snip) McCAIN: After the border is secured, then obviously we have to address the issue of the 12 million people who are still in this country illegally. I don't know what ... American public opinion will take. But one of the key elements, as was in our previous legislation, is...

Supporters of an amnesty for illegal aliens are desperately scrounging for another Republican backer in addition to liberal Republican Lindsay Graham. With Republicans holding 41 seats in the Senate, plus several working class Democrats who will vote against an amnesty, another Republican backer is needed to make the amnesty appear ‘bipartisan.’ Even Graham appears to be reluctant to be the lone Republican supporter of the bill. "I urge the President to write a bill and see if he can get another Republican, see if he can convince the 16 Democrats who voted no the last time," he said during a...

In a dramatic turnaround from 16 years ago, Californians now overwhelmingly favor giving illegal immigrants a "path to legalization'' rather than punishing them by denying them a public education and social services, according to a poll unveiled Monday. The survey of 1,515 registered voters showed that 67 percent of Californians support a two-pronged approach to solving the illegal immigration problem: implementing stronger enforcement at the border while setting up a legalization path for undocumented immigrants who admit they broke the law, perform community service, learn English and pay fines and back taxes. Seventy percent favor stricter border controls and a...