A key Senate Democratic leader said President Obama must treat the immigration crisis with far more urgency, as pressure over the issue intensified across the country Thursday.
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, an Obama ally and one of a handful of Democratic senators shaping an immigration proposal presented last week, faulted the president for suggesting on Wednesday that an immigration bill won't be finished until 2011 at the earliest.
"Telling people we're not going to get a legislative solution this year, or to suggest maybe that it's not possible this year, is not in the best interests of the nation," Menendez said in an interview in the Capitol.
His press secretary, Robert Gibbs, sounded a more pessimistic note at a briefing Thursday. Asked why the White House doesn't push ahead with an immigration bill as it has with other legislation that lacked a bipartisan consensus, Gibbs said: "Well, because there's not enough support to move forward."( Was there a bipartisan consensus on health-care, stimulus bills etc?)
Even if prospects for an immigration overhaul are dwindling, the White House shouldn't give up, proponents insisted. Menendez said he had asked the White House to host a major summit devoted to the issue, modeled after the healthcare summit in February. Invitations would go to House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, with a block of time set aside for hashing out differences.
A White House official who was asked about that idea Thursday said: "We are continuing to examine all of the options for moving forward with a bipartisan conversation."
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