Obama names immigration as top second-term priority

President Obama says immigration is his major second-term priority, on par with his push for health care in his first term, according to an interview aired Sunday that continues to boost the issue to the top of the political conversation.

“Fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority. I will introduce legislation in the first year to get that done,” Mr. Obama told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host David Gregory, who had asked the president what the second-term equivalent would be to his all-encompassing push for health care during his first term.

He also said he would like to expand U.S. energy and set the U.S. economy on firmer footing.

The immigration pledge is similar to a vow Mr. Obama made four years ago to Hispanic audiences, when he also promised to take up immigration in his first year in office, only to see if fall behind the stimulus, global warming and health care.

But Democrats, who four years ago were uncertain of the politics of immigration, now believe it is a clear winner for them, and they are eager to force a debate.

Mr. Obama’s vow to introduce legislation also goes beyond where he stood in his first term, when he refused to write his own bill but instead quietly pushed Sens. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, and Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to strike a deal.

Those efforts collapsed, and neither the House nor Senate ever held a debate on a broad immigration bill — though both took up the Dream Act legislation to legalize young adult illegal immigrants in 2010. That bill passed the House but fell to a bipartisan filibuster in the Senate during a lame-duck session of Congress.

The NBC interview was taped Saturday and aired Sunday morning, as Mr. Obama awaited word from Capitol Hill of whether there would be a deal to avoid tax increases and spending cuts.


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