Obama: Immigration reform ‘cannot pass without Republican votes’ – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

President Obama today called for a “practical, common sense” immigration system that will help the U.S. economy and maintain America’s immigrant tradition — and he put the pressure on Republicans to get it through Congress.

“Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes,” Obama said in his first major immigration speech as president . “That is the political and mathematical reality.”

Obama said his administration has already taken record-setting actions to strengthen the border, and he urged Congress to approve “a pathway to legal status” for the 11 million or so illegal immigrants who are already in the United States.

Immigration has become “a source of fresh contention” in recent days because of the new Arizona law that gives police greater authority to question people’s citizenship, Obama said. His administration is expected to file a lawsuit against Arizona, but the president did not discuss potential legal action.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the first step on the immigration issue should be “to secure the borders,” and that Obama’s pathway to citizenship amounts to “amnesty” for lawbreakers.

“The President can make progress on this issue, but it will take more than a speech,” the top Senate Republican said. “If he would take amnesty off the table and make a real commitment to border and interior security, he will find strong bipartisan support.”

Speaking to lawmakers, academics, and community leaders gathered at American University, Obama touted his plan by stressing the immeasurable contributions that immigrants have made to the United States, and the frequent discrimination they faced throughout history. “Immigrants have always helped to build and defend this country,” Obama said.

The chances for congressional passage don’t appear great. Like McConnell, congressional Republicans and some Democrats said the government should focus on better law enforcement better moving on to citizenship issues or guest worker programs. In the meantime, lawmakers who are already grappling with new Wall Street regulations and an energy bill must also deal with congressional elections only four months from tomorrow.

Obama said political posturing on an emotional issue has delayed congressional action in years and month past. “Into this breach,” he said, “states like Arizona have decided to take matters into their own hands.”

Arizona’s crackdown is understandable but “ill-conceived,” Obama said, arguing that an immigration system requires a national approach rather than a “patchwork” of state laws that puts too much of a burden on local law enforcement.

“These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents,” Obama said, “making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound.”

McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, criticized Obama for his stand on the Arizona law, saying that “attacks on states filling the breach created by the failure of the federal government won’t secure the border, grow jobs or create solutions for what we all agree is a broken immigration system.”

At points in his speech, Obama criticized both sides of the immigration debate.

Some rights groups all but encourage illegal immigration, Obama said, though at least 11 million people are in fact breaking the law by not going through the citizenship process, and they should be held accountable.

As for critics of “amnesty,” Obama said it’s simply impossible to deport 11 million people. Doing so would disrupt communities and break up families, he added, as many undocumented immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens because they were born here.

The president said he has already taken major steps to better protect the border, proclaiming — twice — that “we have more boots on the ground near the southwest border than at any time in our history.”

As for his pathway to citizenship plan, Obama said it will help create “a younger workforce and a faster growing economy than many of our competitors,” Obama said. “And in an increasingly interconnected world, the diversity of our country is a powerful advantage in global competition.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR): FAIR Legislative Update February 1, 2010.

President Obama disappointed many amnesty advocates last week with only a passing mention of immigration during his State of the Union speech. This reference, consisting of just 38 words near the end of the more than hour-long speech, was noticeably ambiguous:  “And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system to secure our borders and enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”  (CNN, January 29, 2010).  Absent was any mention of “comprehensive” immigration reform, a path to citizenship, or even legalization.  This passing reference to immigration reform has amnesty proponents questioning whether President Obama truly intends to push for such legislation as part of the agenda he laid out for his second year.

Click here to read more.

Amnesty not a solution | NewsOK.com.

POINT OF VIEW: Social Security, Medicare funding woes

Immigration — legal and illegal — works against repairing Social Security and Medicare.

Following the playbook of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, proponents of amnesty for illegal aliens are not letting any serious crisis go to waste.

Medicare and Social Security trustees recently announced the trust funds will be insolvent sooner than previously reported — by 2017 and 2037, respectively. In response, several proponents for illegal alien amnesty began beating the drum that amnesty was the solution for insolvency. In fact, amnesty would ultimately compound the problems.

Social Security and Medicare are structured like giant Ponzi schemes where today’s workers support today’s retirees.

In 1950, there were 16 workers paying taxes into the Social Security and Medicare systems for every retiree; in 2005, there were only three workers for every retiree. Instead of correcting the pyramid scheme nature of these programs, advocates of illegal immigrants as a cure are hoping we will just “kick the can” down the road. Ultimately this approach will fail for the same reason all pyramid schemes collapse. It is mathematically impossible for enough workers to enter the system to support retirees.

In truth, the only way to permanently fix Social Security and Medicare is to emphasize programs that would reduce U.S. population and encourage higher skill levels of U.S. citizens. In turn, through the dynamics of supply and demand, higher incomes would be generated. Programs could then be put in place to encourage additional savings to supplement lower payments under Social Security.

Alan Greenspan, a co-creator of the housing, asset and credit bubbles, indicated in 2009 that increasing immigration “would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled” workers. In other words, increasing immigration would decrease the income of a large part of the working class — Americans Greenspan calls the “privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high rates by immigration quotas.”

An immigration advocate, Greenspan seems to believe the Social Security and Medicare funding problems can be repaired by lowering the average worker’s compensation.

A Heritage Foundation report concluded that taxpayers would be on the hook for more than $2.6 trillion for net retirement costs if amnesty were granted to 10 million adult illegal immigrants. (The actual number under an amnesty might be closer to 20 million per studies by Californians for Population Stabilization.)

With about 16 percent of American citizens either unemployed or working part time but looking for full-time positions, legalizing illegal aliens would put substantial additional burden on the various agencies and programs that are attempting to provide benefits to unemployed Americans.

Amnesty for illegal aliens and increased legal immigration would not solve Social Security and Medicare funding problems, but instead would result in lower wages, and strained agencies and programs that are attempting to provide for unemployed American workers. As well, Social Security and Medicare would have significant unfunded liabilities potentially greater than $2.6 trillion dollars.

Legalizing illegal aliens and increasing legal immigration clearly are ill-conceived ideas.

Fotopoulos is a senior writing fellow with Californians for Population Stabilization (capsweb.org).

Amnesty for illegal aliens and increased legal immigration would not solve Social Security and Medicare funding problems, but instead would result in lower wages.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Obama set to hold twice-delayed immigration meeting « – Blogs from CNN.com.

President Obama is scheduled to host a variety of Democratic and Republican party leaders at the White House today.  The goal is to start the conversation of how a possible immigration reform bill might look.  Obama has reiterated that he wants “comprehensive immigration reform that paves the way for citizenship for millions of undocumented workers.”

This is just a beginning, but the with nation still under seige by the continuing economic crisis, it sounds like any immigration bill will be a tough sell in the current political climate.

What do you think?