There's no good reason not to pass immigration reform, President Barack Obama said Thursday, despite a non-partisan government estimate that pending legislation would decrease wages for more than a decade if enacted.
"Obviously just because something is smart and fair and good for the economy and fiscally responsible and supported by business and the evangelical community, and many Democrats and many Republicans, that does not mean that it will actually get done," Obama said in the East Room of the White House. "This is Washington after all. So everything tends to be viewed through a political prism."
Vice President Joe Biden applauds as President Barack Obama urges Congress to take back up comprehensive immigration reform during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. Obama said now that the partial government shutdown is over, Republicans and Democrats should be able to work together to fix "a broken immigration system." (AP)
In July, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill that would provide what supporters call a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants, and what opponents of the bill say is "amnesty.” The legislation would include certain requirements for those already in the U.S. illegally to gain legal residency, such as paying certain back taxes.
"If there is a good reason not to pass this common sense reform, I haven't heard it," Obama said.
A June report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said if the Senate immigration bill is enacted, wages would go down through 2025, at which point average pay would begin to increase. It would also raise the unemployment rate slightly through 2020. However, the same report said it would expand the overall economy by raising productivity and increasing capital investments.
“Average wages would be slightly lower than under current law through 2024, primarily because the amount of capital available to workers would not increase as rapidly as the number of workers and because the new workers would be less skilled and have lower wages, on average, than the labor force under current law,” the CBO report says. “However, the rate of return on capital would be higher under the legislation than under current law throughout the next two decades.”
Obama stressed the Senate bill passed with bipartisan support, and said the Republican-controlled House of Representatives should now do the same.
"It's not smart and it's not fair and does not make sense to keep kicking the can down the road," Obama said.
Obama has said enacting immigration reform by the end of the year should be a top priority.
Obama said allowing more illegal immigrants to gain legal status would grow the economy and reduce the federal deficit. However, some conservatives fear it would harm American workers and bring in millions of Democratic voters.
Obama insisted that the Senate bill doesn't give anyone everything they want, but addresses the core problems with a broken immigration system and is consistent with America's principles as a "nation of laws and a nation of immigrants."
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