Immigration Parade to White House Takes Turn Toward Reconciliation, Health Care

One the day President Obama devoted more energy than ever before to immigration reform, he received a dire warning from the most visible Republican exponent of bi-partisan compromise: use reconciliation to move health care and you will kill immigration reform for the year.

“I expressed, in no uncertain terms, my belief that immigration reform could come to a halt for the year if health care reconciliation goes forward," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement after his face-to-face meeting with Obama and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

"For more than a year, health care has sucked most of the energy out of the room," Graham said. "Using reconciliation to push health care through will make it much harder for Congress to come together on a topic as important as immigration."

Graham and Schumer met with Obama to discuss the status of comprehensive immigration reform, including providing a means for undocumented workers to gain access to health coverage under consideration in health care reform. Giving undocumented workers in the country now a path to legal status would, in all likelihood, provide access to health insurance services contained in the pending reform bill.

The Senate health care bill, which Obama favors, prohibits undocumented workers from purchasing coverage through the newly created health care exchanges. House Democrats want to loosen those restrictions, one of many issues that could complicate a reconciliation process in the Senate.

Obama also met late Thursday with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Those lawmakers left the White House without speaking to reporters.

In a statement, Obama said he looked forward to "reviewing" Schumer and Graham's "promising framework" on immigration reform.

Clearly, Schumer and Graham are far from crafting a bill for the Senate to consider, let alone one that has realistic hopes of passing this year.

Graham said an immigration reform framework "remains a work in progress." In a statement, Schumer said the senators asked for Obama's "help"  one two fronts: "gain increased (political) support in the Senate" and to resolve a "potential agreement between business and labor on the future flow of lower-skilled labor."

Graham said Obama promised to review his and Schumer's proposals to push "our nation toward a biometric Social Security card to ensure illegal workers cannot get jobs." Graham and Schumer also seek to create a "temporary worker program" for agricultural and other seasonal work and, in Graham's words "a rational plan to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States."

In addition to the issues Schumer said Obama must help resolve, Graham said the White House must also deal with the use of so-called "virtual fences" on the U.S.-Mexican border, a program Obama's most recent budget cuts by $189 million. Graham said these fences have "proven much more complex and difficult to implement than originally expected."

"The Administration must make this a priority as securing our borders is a confidence-building measure in the eyes of the American people," Graham's statement said.

A sign of the difficulty Obama faces on immigration came swiftly from Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-CA., chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.

“Comprehensive immigration reform is just a code word for amnesty for our nation’s 10-20 million illegal immigrants," Bilbray said. "What part of the word 'illegal' doesn’t the president understand?”

In addition to his meeting with Schumer and Graham and the Hispanic Caucus, Obama also met with what he described as a  "diverse group of grassroots leaders from around the country."

The White House released this list of "grassroots" groups Obama met with on immigration reform:

* Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice President, Service Employee International Union

* Lillian Rodríguez López , President, Hispanic Federation/Chair, National Hispanic Leadership Agenda

* The Most Reverend John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, Catholic Church

* Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change (CCC)

* Ali Noorani, Executive Director, National Immigration Forum

* Reverend Luis Cortes, President, Esperanza USA

* Clarissa Martínez De Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns, National Council of La Raza

* Angelica Salas, Director, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)

* Carlos Saavedra, National Coordinator of the United We Dream Network

* John W. Wilhelm, General President, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) International Union

* Joseph Hansen, International President, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)

* Gustavo Torres, Executive Director, CASA De Maryland

* Chung-Wha Hong, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition

* Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights