White House Dodges Question on Border-Security Trigger

POLITICO

By Donovan Slack

February 14, 2013

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/02/white-house-dodges-question-on-bordersecurity-trigger-157046.html

White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest declined to say Thursday if President Obama will support an immigration reform deal that ties a pathway to citizenship to tighter border security, but he dismissed assertions by Sen. Marco Rubio that failure to embrace the security trigger is laying the groundwork to scuttle any deal.

"The primary reason that we are seeing immigration reform rise on the priority list is because of the president’s effort to put it there," Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday. "The president has been committed to immigration reform and fixing our immigration system for quite some time."

When asked if requiring heightened border security before opening a pathway to citizenship is a deal breaker, Earnest demurred.

"The view of the president is that border security should be part of fixing our broken immigration system, but the other thing that should be part of that is a clear path to citizenship," he replied. "And that's what we're, that's what we're working on."

Rubio said Wednesday that the administration "must accept the principle that security triggers must be met before anyone who is currently undocumented is allowed to apply for a green card. This is a principle agreed to by the bipartisan group of senators I am working with and it is something that must be included in any legislative proposal if it is to be successful."

He equated the administration's failure to embrace that principal with "laying the groundwork to scuttle the bipartisan effort in the Senate."

Earnest said Obama is committed to working with the bipartisan gang of eight senators to get a deal done, but he cautioned that the president expects quick action.

"Delays and bickering is not something the president will tolerate," he said. "We're not going to let this get bogged down in the process. We need to move expeditiously to get this done. That's what the president’s counting on.

"And the president’s interested in working with senators from both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Rubio, to get this done."

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