Obama: 'Now is the time' to reform immigration

LAS VEGAS -- Declaring "now is the time" to fix broken immigration laws, President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to put millions of illegal immigrants on a clear path to U.S. citizenship while tightening border security and cracking down on businesses that employ people illegally.

Obama heralded a rare show of bipartisanship between the White House and Senate leaders on basic solutions.

But both the White House and Senate proposals for tackling immigration reforms still lack key details -- and that's before a Senate measure can be debated, approved and sent to the Republican-controlled House where opposition is likely to be stronger. Potential roadblocks are emerging over how to structure the avenue to citizenship.

Obama said Congress is showing "a genuine desire to get this done soon." But mindful of previous immigration efforts that have failed, he warned that the debate would grow more difficult.

"The question now is simple," Obama said. "Do we have the resolve as a people, as a country, as a government to finally put this issue behind us? I believe that we do."

Some Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, responded cautiously to the proposals from the president Tuesday and a bipartisan Senate group on Monday.

"We hope the president is careful not to drag the debate to the left and ultimately disrupt the difficult work that is ahead in the House and Senate," said Brendan Buck, a Boehner spokesman.

The separate White House and Senate proposals focus on the same principles: providing a way for most of the estimated 11 million people already here illegally to become citizens, strengthening border security, cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and streamlining the legal immigration system.

Obama and the Senate lawmakers all want to require those here illegally to register with the government, pass criminal and national security background checks, pay fees and penalties as well as back taxes, and wait until existing immigration backlogs are cleared before getting in line for green cards. After reaching that status, U.S. law says people can become citizens after five years.

The Senate proposal says that entire process couldn't start until the borders were fully secure and tracking of people in the United States on visas had improved. Those vague requirements would almost certainly make the wait for achieving citizenship longer than what the White House proposes.

The president's speech encouraged Long Island supporters of immigrants. "Obama's remarks today put the full weight of the presidency behind immigration reform for the first time since Ronald Reagan," said Patrick Young, program director of the Central American Refugee Center, a nonprofit that assists immigrants in Hempstead and Brentwood.

With Victor Ramos