Barack Obama, Immigration | featured news

Aiming to show he's still focused on creating jobs, President Barack Obama is beginning a series of quick trips around the country to resurrect ideas from his State of the Union address that became overshadowed by the intense debates over gun control, immigration and automatic spending cuts.

President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Tom Perez, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, as labor secretary, a cabinet member who will play a key role in the administration's efforts to raise the minimum wage and reform immigration laws.

Congress and the White House have just begun exploring policies that would revamp the country’s immigration laws. A bipartisan group of senators have proposed a new pathway to citizenship Monday and, later Tuesday, President Obama is expected to unveil his own reform plan.

Leading Democratic and Republican senators said on Sunday there were encouraging signs in the push to overhaul U.S. immigration laws - a top priority for President Obama's second term - and they would introduce their plan this week.

The outsized role that Latino voters played in securing victories for President Obama and Democratic Senate candidates has energized the effort to rewrite America's immigration laws, but opposition in Congress, particularly among House Republicans, remains a significant hurdle.

President Obama says he's confident he can get an immigration bill -- because Republicans need Hispanic votes.

Fewer than expected are seeking to join President Obama's program to defer deportation. Some fear a future administration could use their applications against them or their families.

As President Obama heads to Florida to talk to Hispanic lawmakers, his re-election campaign is hitting Republican opponent Mitt Romney over the immigration issue. A new video from the campaign spotlights Romney's refusal to say whether he would repeal Obama's new policy ending deportations of children of illegal immigrants.

In the past six days, President Obama has sent a very clear message to Republicans in Congress. And that message goes like this: Bring it on. His decision to stop actively deporting young illegal immigrants, which was announced last Friday, and his action Wednesday to invoke executive privilege over documents tied to the “Fast and Furious” program both amount to a finger in the eye of House GOPers.

President Obama’s decision to extend administrative relief to an estimated 800,000 young illegal immigrants has won favor with Latino voters in key battleground states, according to a new poll.