And if possible, Mr. President, I would like to know about immigration, taking advantage of your presence here since we haven’t been able to talk to you before. We have about 25 percent or 30 percent of our population who are living illegally in the United States. So what are your short-term plans, President Obama? Are you going to lobby for comprehensive reform or temporary residence for the Salvadorans that are working with the TPS or that are living with a TPS who are there? Thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Specifically on immigration reform first, as I indicated in my remarks and as I said in my State of the Union speech, I continue to believe in comprehensive immigration reform. America is a nation of laws and it is a nation of immigrants. And so our job is to create secure borders, to make sure that we’re got a legal immigration system that is effective and is not frustrating for families, doesn’t divide families.
But we also have to make sure that those who are in the United States illegally at this point, but in some cases have been there for a long time, in some cases have children who were born in the United States and are United States citizens, that they have a pathway to get right by the law. And several years ago we were able to craft a bipartisan consensus, at least in the United States Senate, around this issue. Senator John McCain, Senator Ted Kennedy had a comprehensive immigration reform bill that I supported and was a part of when I was in the Senate. And we were able to get it passed through the Senate, and we couldn’t get it passed through the House of Representatives.
Over the last two years, it’s been more difficult to gain Republican support for some of these efforts. And my hope is, is that they begin to recognize over the next year that we can’t solve this problem without taking a broad, comprehensive approach. And that will benefit not only those Salvadorans who are living in the United States, but it also, more importantly, from the perspective of the region, can ensure that relations between neighbors and trade and economic relations between neighbors is more orderly and more secure, more regularized.
It is the right thing to do. This is the time to do it. And I will continue to push hard to make it happen. It won’t be easy. The politics of this are difficult. But I am confident that ultimately we are going to get it done.
Now, with respect to particular programs, I will have my team provide a sheet that has details of how these various programs would work. We already mentioned the $200 million for security. There are other initiatives that are very important. The Partnership for Growth -- the immediate plans involve our experts meeting with President Funes’ economic advisors and exports to determine what exactly are the barriers for improved growth and development here in El Salvador.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-...int-press-conf