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      WASHINGTON (AP) - With a re-election campaign looming, President
Barack Obama is pushing Congress to overhaul the immigration
system, but lawmakers seems to have little appetite to take on the
issue.


      In recent speeches at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, and
the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama said
his administration has followed through on demands to secure the
border, and now it's time for Congress to put revamping immigration
back on the agenda and make something happen.


      "Comprehensive immigration reform is not only an economic
imperative or a security imperative, it is also a moral
imperative," Obama told the prayer breakfast.

      But Republicans say any effort to allow illegal immigrants to
stay in the country or any effort that doesn't address the
inadequacies they see in border security is doomed to fail.


      Although legislation has yet to be introduced, many lawmakers
agree the most likely first step toward immigration legislation is
a requirement that all businesses use E-Verify. The E-Verify
program lets businesses know whether employees have the necessary
papers to work in the U.S. Such legislation could give Democrats
political cover by addressing immigration requirements that
preclude tough crackdowns on immigrants, and give Republicans an
opportunity to say they provided a new enforcement tool to stop
illegal immigration.


      The president's recent push, which started in April with a White
House meeting on immigration issues and other events involving
Latino celebrities, prompted Senate Democrats this month to
reintroduce the DREAM Act. The bill would give a path to legal
status for law-abiding young people who were brought into the
United States without documents as children and who either plan to
attend college or join the military.


      "Our immigration laws prevent thousands of young people from
fully contributing to our nation's future," Sen. Dick Durbin,
D-Ill., said in a statement announcing the bill he drafted. "These
are honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists and
valedictorians. These children are tomorrow's doctors, nurses,
teachers, firefighters, soldiers and senators, and we should give
them the opportunity to reach their full potential."


      Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has introduced a similar bill in
the House.


      Republicans, who control the House, insist the DREAM Act will
never pass.


      "It's amnesty for up to 2 million people," said Rep. Lamar
Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, which has some jurisdiction over immigration
legislation. "I just don't see it when you are still talking about
amnesty." Smith said the bill rewards the undocumented parents and
is "an open invitation to fraud."


      But GOP House members have pledged to introduce an E-Verify bill
for employers.


      Some Democrats have suggested a compromise bill incorporating
elements of both DREAM and E-Verify, even as they acknowledge the
prospects for such a deal are dim.


      "We are at a stalemate, but I am willing to sit down and work
through issues to accomplish something in the interest of the
country," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. "But it takes two to do
that."


      Smith said there is no room for compromise with any bill that
includes a path to legalization.


      The DREAM Act passed the House last year before falling five
votes short in the Senate in December. While three Republicans
supported it, five Democrats opposed it.


      What support it had among Republicans has eroded as some face
primary challenges from the right. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
dropped his support of the DREAM Act last year because he said
Americans are more concerned with border security. And Indiana's
Sen. Richard Lugar backed away from the most recent version because
the president's speeches turned immigration into a "divisive
election issue," said his spokesman, Andy Fisher. Lugar is facing
a Tea Party primary challenge.


      Smith said the reintroduction of failed legislation doesn't seem
like a serious effort and chided Obama for focusing on the issue
again in hopes of scoring campaign points with Hispanic voters.


      Winning the Hispanic vote is thought to be critical in Obama's
bid for re-election. In 2008, Latinos made up more than 7 percent
of voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, and their numbers
are greater in swing states such as Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado
and Florida.


      The Obama administration has made a point of highlighting
enforcement efforts, though they differ dramatically from those of
former President George W. Bush's administration.


      The current administration has shied away from the high-profile
immigration raids at businesses that routinely yielded large
numbers of arrests of illegal workers. Instead, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement has shifted strategies, focusing instead on
audits of the documents employers must maintain that show their
workers are eligible to work in the United States. The audits,
officials have said, put the focus on employers who knowingly hire
illegal workers.


      Speaking in El Paso, Obama said his administration had done what
Republicans in Congress have asked by adding Border Patrol agents,
intelligence analysts and unmanned aerial vehicles.


      "We've gone above and beyond what was requested by the very
Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we
got serious about enforcement," Obama said from a national park
not far from the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.
"All the stuff they've asked for, we've done."

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With a re-election campaign looming, President
Barack Obama is pushing Congress to overhaul the immigration
system, but lawmakers seems to have little appetite to take on the
issue.

Obama puts immigration in Congress' court

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