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The White House announced that President Obama called three of the leading Republican Senators on Tuesday “to discuss their shared commitment to bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform and to commend the Senators for the bipartisan progress that continues to be made by the Gang of 8 on this important issue.”
Obama called Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida to help further the bipartisan struggle to come up with an immigration reform policy which will be acceptable to both sides of the aisle.
“During the calls, which build on conversations that have taken place at the staff level, the president reiterated that he remains supportive of the effort underway in Congress, and that he hopes that they can produce a bill as soon as possible that reflects shared core principles on reform,” the administrations statement said. “The president has made clear that he believes commonsense reform needs to include strengthening border security, creating an earned path to citizenship, holding employers accountable, and streamlining legal immigration.
“As the president made clear when he met with Democratic Senators involved in the process last week, that while he is pleased with the progress and supportive of the effort to date, he is prepared to submit his own legislation if Congress fails to act. He thanked the Senators for their leadership, and made clear that he and his staff look forward to continuing to work together with their teams to achieve needed reform.”
