Obama to meet with McCain, Schumer on immigration
The White House says President Barack Obama will meet Thursday with two senators playing a major role in an immigration overhaul in Congress.
- George W. Bush: Immigration system is "broken"
- House GOP meetings could make or break immigration reform
Obama will meet in the Oval Office with Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat. McCain and Schumer were both part of a bipartisan Senate group that drafted a comprehensive bill that would create a path to citizenship for 11 million people in the U.S. illegally.
The Senate has already passed that bill, and attention has turned to the Republican-controlled House. GOP leaders say the Senate bill is flawed and say they won't take it up. Instead, they say they'll pursue a step-by-step approach. It's unclear whether that will include a path to citizenship. Many House Republicans oppose that provision.
In a statement after a closed-door meeting of GOP rank and file, House Republican leaders soundly rejected the bipartisan Senate bill that includes a path to citizenship and increased border security.
"Today House Republicans affirmed that rather than take up the flawed legislation rushed through the Senate, House committees will continue their work on a step-by-step, common-sense approach to fixing what has long been a broken system," House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders said in the statement, comparing the Senate legislation to "a single, massive, Obamacare-like bill."
They said Obama's recent decision to delay an employer requirement in the health care bill raised concerns among the American people that the administration cannot be trusted to secure the border and enforce the law.