Obama administration urges House to pass immigration reform bill

AP White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at the daily press briefing in Washington, on Oct. 16, 2013.

The Obama Administration has urged the House of Representatives to pass the immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented people and accelerate the immigration of professionals from countries like India and China.

“Now, that legislation passed the Senate with a significant bipartisan majority, and he (Mr. Obama) absolutely believes that the House ought to take up that legislation and pass it. And as we’ve discussed in recent days, that’s not a partisan pursuit; it’s the opposite of a partisan pursuit, one, because it requires votes from both parties, and it also would benefit both parties,” the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said.

“There is no question that the decision by the House to shut the government down and to flirt with default has forced him and everyone in Congress to pay attention to those problems and to those crises rather than the many other things that we could and should be working on, and immigration reform is one of them,” he said.

Mr. Carney said there are many proponents of comprehensive immigration reform in the Republican Party and within the broader Republican universe.

“He wants to continue the effort that has been underway all year to try to pass a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would strengthen the economy, help our middle class, reduce the deficit and make us more competitive in the future,” he said.

Mr. Carney said that immigration bill is one of the many priorities that Mr. Obama and Congress members will be pushing once the country move past unfortunate and unnecessary shutdown crises.