President Obama met with Sens. Chuck Shumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) on Tuesday to discuss their new immigration bill and said in a statement that he came away pleased.
“This bill is clearly a compromise, and no one will get everything they wanted, including me,” Obama said. “But it is largely consistent with the principles that I have repeatedly laid out for comprehensive reform.”
As the president noted, the bill is based on the same broad planks as the White House’s own immigration framework, including heightened border security, a crackdown on illegal hiring, a retooled legal immigration system, and a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America.
“This bill would continue to strengthen security at our borders and hold employers more accountable if they knowingly hire undocumented workers,” Obama said. ” It would provide a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million individuals who are already in this country illegally. And it would modernize our legal immigration system so that we’re able to reunite families and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will help create good paying jobs and grow our economy. These are all commonsense steps that the majority of Americans support. I urge the Senate to quickly move this bill forward and, as I told Senators Schumer and McCain, I stand willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that comprehensive immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible.”
Schumer, McCain, and the other members of the Senate “Gang of 8” responsible for the bipartisan immigration bill are planning on debuting their legislation as early as Tuesday night.
