* President to tout economic benefits to CEOs, unions
* Republicans soften stance after rebuke by Hispanic voters
* House panel to take up immigration on Tuesday
By Matt Spetalnick and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will
seek to build momentum for U.S. immigration reform this week
ahead of his State of the Union address which is expected to
challenge Republicans to take up an overhaul amid an
increasingly contentious debate in Washington.
Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with
corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on
Tuesday to lobby for their support, and he has dispatched
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to
tout the administration’s border security efforts.
The flurry of activity, including new moves in Congress,
comes amid disagreement between the Democratic president and
many Republicans over the question of citizenship for illegal
immigrants, an obstacle that could make it hard to reach a final
deal on sweeping legislation.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking
Republican in the House of Representatives, will address
immigration reform and other issues in a speech on Tuesday to
the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
In excerpts to that speech, Cantor walked a fine line on
future citizenship for those in the United States illegally. “We
must balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those
waiting to enter this country legally, with care for people and
families, most of whom just want to make a better life and
contribute to America,” he said.
Obama is expected to use his Feb. 12 State of the Union
speech to Congress – a major annual address by the president in
which he lays out his legislative priorities for the year – to
keep the heat on Republicans, who appear more willing to accept
an immigration overhaul after they were chastened by Latino
voters’ rejection in the November election.
But differences have emerged since Obama and a bipartisan
Senate working “group of eight” rolled out their proposals last
week aimed at the biggest U.S. immigration revamp in decades.
Obama wants to give America’s 11 million illegal immigrants
a clear process to achieve citizenship, including payment of
fines, criminal background checks and going to the “back of the
line” behind legal applicants. He has vowed to introduce his own
bill if Congress fails to act in a timely fashion.
But top Republicans want to defer citizenship until the
county’s borders are deemed more secure – a linkage that Obama
and most of his fellow Democrats would find hard to accept.
Obama’s aides are confident the president has enough
leverage to avoid giving ground – not least because they believe
that if the reform effort fails in Congress, voters are more
likely to blame the Republicans and they would suffer in the
2014 midterm congressional elections.
The Republican strategy could soon become clearer. The
Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled House of
Representatives, where reform faces the toughest fight, will
kick off hearings on Tuesday with a broad look at the
immigration system and border security.
A congressional Democratic aide said Republicans have lined
up a set of witnesses that is “a lot more balanced than you
would have seen in previous Congresses, when you would have seen
hard-line enforcement-only advocates be front and center.”
SETTING NEW TONE
A number of leading Republicans, worried that their party
has alienated Hispanics with anti-immigrant rhetoric, have made
clear they want to set a new tone with the fast-growing Latino
electorate. More than 70 percent of Hispanic voters backed Obama
in the Nov. 6 presidential election.
Immigration reform advocates will be watching the hearing
closely to see whether Republicans mostly stress piecemeal
reforms, such as more border security and encouraging more guest
workers and high-tech visas, rather than the comprehensive
reforms that Obama and the Democrats are seeking.
Some conservatives have warned that the reform efforts now
taking shape essentially could offer “amnesty” for law-breakers.
A bipartisan House group has been working behind the scenes
on a reform package they hope to unveil before the State of the
Union. But it was unclear whether they would meet that goal.
Underscoring the difficulty of resolving such a volatile
issue, Republican Jeff Sessions, a senior member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, on Monday introduced narrow legislation
aimed at removing illegal immigrants from the workplace.
“Before considering some broad-based amnesty, shouldn’t we
finally deliver for the American people on the enforcement of
those laws already in place? What good are new promises when old
ones are being broken,” Sessions said.
At the White House on Tuesday, Obama will try to rally
business and labor leaders with a sales pitch that immigration
reform will be good for the fragile U.S. economy and help boost
job creation, administration officials said. The White House
declined to immediately name those who planned to participate.
Napolitano was headed to San Diego on Monday and El Paso,
Texas, on Tuesday to inspect security on the border with Mexico
and meet state and local officials. Border security is expected
to be a tough area for legislative compromise.
Obama and his aides have argued that his administration has
made strides in tightening controls at the border, resulting in
fewer people trying to cross over from Mexico. But some
Republicans say more must be done to prevent an increased flow
of illegal immigrants once the U.S. economy improves.
