WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s new homeland security secretary is offering his first public hints at executive action the administration might take on immigration, suggesting changes to a much-criticized program that runs the names of people booked for local crimes through a federal immigration database.

But advocates who have pushed Obama for bold action with immigration legislation stalled in Congress wasted no time in declaring that such steps wouldn’t go far enough.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, tasked by Obama with reviewing the nation’s deportation policy to see whether it can be made more humane, said Thursday that the so-called Secure Communities program needs “a fresh start.”

The program allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to ask local police and sheriffs to detain people who have been booked and whose fingerprints match up in a federal database for immigration violations. ICE can then decide whether to deport them.

That’s led to complaints that people are being deported for immigration violations without being convicted of any crime, or with only minor offenses. Police and sheriff’s officials also complain people are afraid to interact with law enforcement because they worry they’ll be deported. Following recent court rulings that raised questions about the program, local governments increasingly have announced plans to refuse to honor the detention requests.

In comments Thursday on PBS’ “NewsHour” program, Johnson indicated he might aim to revamp the program to focus on people who actually have been convicted, not just those arrested or booked.

“In my judgment, Secure Communities should be an efficient way to work with state and local law enforcement to reach the removal priorities that we have, those who are convicted of something,” he said.

Changes in the Secure Communities program or other enforcement policies would answer some demands from immigrant advocates who have been pressuring Obama to take steps to curb record-high deportations on his watch. But many advocates have pushed for Secure Communities to be eliminated altogether, and such steps also would fall short of the sweeping action advocates are pushing for to allow some of the 11.5 million people in the country illegally to stay.

Johnson said he still was reviewing the possibility of expanding an Obama program granting work permits and protection from deportation to some immigrants brought here illegally as children — known loosely as “Dreamers” for the DREAM Act legislative proposal. But Johnson sounded a note of caution.

“I would say that we have to be careful not to pre-empt Congress in certain areas,” Johnson said. “They are the lawmakers. Whatever we do in the executive branch, we have to do within the confines of existing law.”

Advocates contend Obama has more authority to act on his own than the administration acknowledges.

“The goal posts for Secretary Johnson are clear. He has to end the so-called Secure Communities program as we know it, and he needs to protect more low priority immigrants and expand on what President Obama did in 2012 when he boldly protected Dreamers,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an advocacy group. “Anything less will be viewed as merely tinkering.”

Joanne Lin, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “Secure communities cannot be successfully rebooted” and must end.

Johnson’s deportation policy review comes with immigration legislation stuck in the GOP-led House 11 months after Senate passage of a far-reaching bill that included billions of dollars more for border security, new visa programs and a path to citizenship for many now here illegally.

Republicans have warned that any executive action by Obama would destroy whatever chance remains to get their cooperation on immigration. Some see a narrow window for the House to act in the next couple of months, ahead of Congress’ August recess and the November midterm elections.

And some Republicans warn that Obama should not be taking steps to relax enforcement.

“We must be strengthening — not weakening — the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” said Stephen Miller, spokesman for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• Secure Communities
• immigration

MIAMI (AP) — Immigration authorities said Thursday that they are reviewing the case of a U.S. Army veteran and Cuban native who recently discovered he is not an American citizen.

Mario Hernandez served in Vietnam and worked for the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons using a Social Security number he received when he arrived in the country as a child. The 58-year-old Tallahassee man always thought he was a U.S. citizen and repeatedly voted. It was only last fall when he sought a passport to take a cruise with his wife that he discovered the authorities did not list him as a citizen or a permanent resident. Suddenly, he was in limbo and under investigation by the U.S. government.

“I served this country,” Hernandez said. “I’ve always tried to prove I’m a good American citizen. I have always taught my children and grandchildren we need to be good stewards of this country. My parents came for freedom. We owe a lot to this country.”

Since the Cuban revolution, those who leave the communist-run island generally get fast-tracked to U.S. residency and citizenship. Hernandez arrived in 1965 with his mother and always assumed she had filed immigration papers.

U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services Spokesman Christopher Bentley said Thursday his agency is reviewing the case and will meet with Hernandez and his attorney, Elizabeth Ricci. Ricci said a meeting was scheduled for next week.

“When an error is discovered, either through the appeals process or by other means, we work diligently to review the case and take steps to correct the error and prevent similar issues from occurring in the future,” he said in a statement.

Ricci said Hernandez’s years of service in the military and his work guarding criminals, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, should be rewarded not punished. In recent months, however, she said officials have been asking detailed questions about why Hernandez voted, suggesting they might be interested in filing charges related to voter fraud.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic, but it’s cautious optimism,” she said.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Mario Hernandez

By David Milliken, Annika Breidthardt and Leigh Thomas

LONDON/BERLIN/PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) – An unemployed builder sits on the pavement, begging for small change next to a slogan saying “EU policy at work – British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour”.

The arresting image comes from an election poster for the United Kingdom Independence Party, a once-fringe movement that wants to withdraw Britain from the EU and looks set to garner the most votes in next week’s European Parliament polls.

Worry about immigration is now higher in Britain than in any other EU country bar Malta. A quarter of Britons in a recent survey named it as one of their top two concerns, compared with 19 percent in Germany, the country with the third-highest level of unease, and fewer than 10 percent in Italy and France.

Immigration has become a hot topic in Europe as it recovers only slowly from years of economic crisis.

Anti-EU parties across the bloc are demanding borders be shut to new migrants or numbers rationed. EU rules mean people are free to move from the poorer east to the richer west and thousands of people from Africa and Asia continue to risk perilous routes across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

Britain certainly has plenty of immigrants. The country’s population of foreigners has risen by more than a million since the last EU elections in 2009 – a bigger increase than anywhere in the EU apart from Italy where foreign residents make up 7 percent of the total population.

But most economic studies suggest that for Europe’s biggest economies, acting as a magnet for foreign workers is more of a blessing than a curse – at least until they stop working.

“Overall the impact of immigration has been broadly positive for the economy. There has been little or no negative impact for employment,” said Jonathan Portes, director of Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

A study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last year showed that immigrants to Britain paid more in taxes than they took out in pensions and benefits by a margin equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP.

This is better than the OECD average of 0.35 percent, while in France and Germany immigrants were a net drain of 0.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Those figures reflect high pension costs – in Germany’s case, partly because of the relatively elderly ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union who were encouraged to migrate after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in France because the age profile of immigrants is older than average.

Facing a declining and ageing population, German industry has actively sought immigration. By 2050, a third of the population will be above the age of 65, according to government data, and the population is seen shrinking by a quarter.

More than 7.6 million foreigners were registered as living in Germany at the end of last year, the highest number since records started in 1967. Some hot spots such as Cologne, Dortmund and Hanover have struggled with a large number of poor immigrants from Eastern Europe.

But new incoming workers tend not to compete with the indigenous population for jobs.

“Foreigners often are not put into communicative jobs. In the supermarket for instance, the foreigner works in the warehouse, while the German works at the till. Those are not exactly the same jobs,” said Herbert Bruecker, a professor at the Institute for Employment Research.

Portes saw a similar trend in Britain though he said some people in lower-skilled jobs have experienced downward pressure on wages as a result of outside competition.

“A lot of people who work in food processing are from eastern Europe,” he said. “Often they don’t get paid very much, and the conditions are not very nice.”

The situation is mirrored in Italy where most foreigners are employed in low-skilled jobs in industry, construction, seasonal labour or domestic care, a sector where 4 out of 5 workers come from abroad.

Nor do new incomers tend to overburden the welfare state.

“On average the foreigners still receive fewer transfer payments than the German population, simply because they are younger and the bulk of transfer payments in Germany is pensions,” said Bruecker.

Nonetheless, there is growing pressure to tighten up.

A German government panel recommended in March limiting job-seekers’ stay to three months if they fail to find work, expelling those who commit benefit fraud and blocking their return for a certain period. The panel also proposed tougher bureaucratic controls on those seeking benefits.

Britain has also introduced measures to limit access to benefits for EU migrants who earn less than 150 pounds ($250) a week, something EU officials have warned may breach European law.

FRENCH IMMIGRATION WANING

In sheer numbers France has one of the biggest foreign-born populations among developed countries at 7.36 million but it is no longer a top destination for immigrants as it once was.

Data from EU statistics agency Eurostat showed that in 2012, there was net foreign migration of 112,000 into France, compared with 239,000 in Britain and 366,000 in Germany.

“France hasn’t been a big destination for immigration for years and the illusion that it is comes from the tendency to confuse immigrants and the children of immigrants,” OECD head international migration Jean-Christophe Dumont said.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who polls indicate could come top in next week’s election, told Reuters EU rules stopped France taking steps to keep foreigners out.

“Europe is a sieve with totally open borders, but EU requirements mean we are forced to put in place policies that attract immigration,” she said, blaming generous welfare that cannot be restricted to French citizens.

Britain’s ruling Conservative party pledged to reduce annual net immigration to the tens of thousands when it took power in 2010 and has had to crack down on immigration from outside the EU.

Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London and one of the party’s more pro-immigration voices, said that created the unintended consequence of barring high-skilled people from countries like Australia and New Zealand so as to hit targets.

“There’s no reason, in my view, why we need to have completely untrammelled movement from the EU,” he said in a recent interview.

A NIESR study into the British government’s plan to halve net immigration said it would reduce GDP per head by 2.7 percent by 2060 and require a rate of income tax more than 2 percent higher than otherwise to fund a more elderly population.

However both Portes and the OECD said that immigration was not a permanent solution to Europe’s ageing workforces.

“Labour migrants’ … net contribution generally tends to be positive, at least in the short run. Nevertheless, in the long run … it is neither a major burden nor a major panacaea for the public purse,” the OECD said.

Much depends on whether migrants retire in the country in which they worked, or return to their country of origin.

Whatever the economic evidence, the anti-immigration message is resonating in France, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Austria and Britain.

Matthew Goodwin, a University of Nottingham professor, said UKIP leader Nigel Farage had scored by conflating the issue of immigration with opposition to the EU.

“They have doubled down on that ‘left behind’ electorate … by merging immigration with the issue of Europe, and combining that with a big side dish of anti-establishment populism and attacking Westminster elites, attacking elites in Brussels who they allege have colluded to undermine the voices of the left behind,” he said.

Farage’s pitch is that unlike the main parties he will talk straight to the British electorate. But as often in politics, all is not what it seems.

A few days after he unveiled UKIP’s poster, the apparently destitute British builder turned out to have been played by an actor – who was an Irish immigrant. ($1 = 0.5939 British Pounds) (Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Rome and Mark John in Paris. Editing by Mike Peacock)

• Europe News
• US International News

By David Milliken, Annika Breidthardt and Leigh Thomas

LONDON/BERLIN/PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) – An unemployed builder sits on the pavement, begging for small change next to a slogan saying “EU policy at work – British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour”.

The arresting image comes from an election poster for the United Kingdom Independence Party, a once-fringe movement that wants to withdraw Britain from the EU and looks set to garner the most votes in next week’s European Parliament polls.

Worry about immigration is now higher in Britain than in any other EU country bar Malta. A quarter of Britons in a recent survey named it as one of their top two concerns, compared with 19 percent in Germany, the country with the third-highest level of unease, and fewer than 10 percent in Italy and France.

Immigration has become a hot topic in Europe as it recovers only slowly from years of economic crisis.

Anti-EU parties across the bloc are demanding borders be shut to new migrants or numbers rationed. EU rules mean people are free to move from the poorer east to the richer west and thousands of people from Africa and Asia continue to risk perilous routes across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

Britain certainly has plenty of immigrants. The country’s population of foreigners has risen by more than a million since the last EU elections in 2009 – a bigger increase than anywhere in the EU apart from Italy where foreign residents make up 7 percent of the total population.

But most economic studies suggest that for Europe’s biggest economies, acting as a magnet for foreign workers is more of a blessing than a curse – at least until they stop working.

“Overall the impact of immigration has been broadly positive for the economy. There has been little or no negative impact for employment,” said Jonathan Portes, director of Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

A study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last year showed that immigrants to Britain paid more in taxes than they took out in pensions and benefits by a margin equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP.

This is better than the OECD average of 0.35 percent, while in France and Germany immigrants were a net drain of 0.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Those figures reflect high pension costs – in Germany’s case, partly because of the relatively elderly ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union who were encouraged to migrate after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in France because the age profile of immigrants is older than average.

Facing a declining and ageing population, German industry has actively sought immigration. By 2050, a third of the population will be above the age of 65, according to government data, and the population is seen shrinking by a quarter.

More than 7.6 million foreigners were registered as living in Germany at the end of last year, the highest number since records started in 1967. Some hot spots such as Cologne, Dortmund and Hanover have struggled with a large number of poor immigrants from Eastern Europe.

But new incoming workers tend not to compete with the indigenous population for jobs.

“Foreigners often are not put into communicative jobs. In the supermarket for instance, the foreigner works in the warehouse, while the German works at the till. Those are not exactly the same jobs,” said Herbert Bruecker, a professor at the Institute for Employment Research.

Portes saw a similar trend in Britain though he said some people in lower-skilled jobs have experienced downward pressure on wages as a result of outside competition.

“A lot of people who work in food processing are from eastern Europe,” he said. “Often they don’t get paid very much, and the conditions are not very nice.”

The situation is mirrored in Italy where most foreigners are employed in low-skilled jobs in industry, construction, seasonal labour or domestic care, a sector where 4 out of 5 workers come from abroad.

Nor do new incomers tend to overburden the welfare state.

“On average the foreigners still receive fewer transfer payments than the German population, simply because they are younger and the bulk of transfer payments in Germany is pensions,” said Bruecker.

Nonetheless, there is growing pressure to tighten up.

A German government panel recommended in March limiting job-seekers’ stay to three months if they fail to find work, expelling those who commit benefit fraud and blocking their return for a certain period. The panel also proposed tougher bureaucratic controls on those seeking benefits.

Britain has also introduced measures to limit access to benefits for EU migrants who earn less than 150 pounds ($250) a week, something EU officials have warned may breach European law.

FRENCH IMMIGRATION WANING

In sheer numbers France has one of the biggest foreign-born populations among developed countries at 7.36 million but it is no longer a top destination for immigrants as it once was.

Data from EU statistics agency Eurostat showed that in 2012, there was net foreign migration of 112,000 into France, compared with 239,000 in Britain and 366,000 in Germany.

“France hasn’t been a big destination for immigration for years and the illusion that it is comes from the tendency to confuse immigrants and the children of immigrants,” OECD head international migration Jean-Christophe Dumont said.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who polls indicate could come top in next week’s election, told Reuters EU rules stopped France taking steps to keep foreigners out.

“Europe is a sieve with totally open borders, but EU requirements mean we are forced to put in place policies that attract immigration,” she said, blaming generous welfare that cannot be restricted to French citizens.

Britain’s ruling Conservative party pledged to reduce annual net immigration to the tens of thousands when it took power in 2010 and has had to crack down on immigration from outside the EU.

Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London and one of the party’s more pro-immigration voices, said that created the unintended consequence of barring high-skilled people from countries like Australia and New Zealand so as to hit targets.

“There’s no reason, in my view, why we need to have completely untrammelled movement from the EU,” he said in a recent interview.

A NIESR study into the British government’s plan to halve net immigration said it would reduce GDP per head by 2.7 percent by 2060 and require a rate of income tax more than 2 percent higher than otherwise to fund a more elderly population.

However both Portes and the OECD said that immigration was not a permanent solution to Europe’s ageing workforces.

“Labour migrants’ … net contribution generally tends to be positive, at least in the short run. Nevertheless, in the long run … it is neither a major burden nor a major panacaea for the public purse,” the OECD said.

Much depends on whether migrants retire in the country in which they worked, or return to their country of origin.

Whatever the economic evidence, the anti-immigration message is resonating in France, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Austria and Britain.

Matthew Goodwin, a University of Nottingham professor, said UKIP leader Nigel Farage had scored by conflating the issue of immigration with opposition to the EU.

“They have doubled down on that ‘left behind’ electorate … by merging immigration with the issue of Europe, and combining that with a big side dish of anti-establishment populism and attacking Westminster elites, attacking elites in Brussels who they allege have colluded to undermine the voices of the left behind,” he said.

Farage’s pitch is that unlike the main parties he will talk straight to the British electorate. But as often in politics, all is not what it seems.

A few days after he unveiled UKIP’s poster, the apparently destitute British builder turned out to have been played by an actor – who was an Irish immigrant. ($1 = 0.5939 British Pounds) (Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Rome and Mark John in Paris. Editing by Mike Peacock)

• Europe News
• US International News

By David Milliken, Annika Breidthardt and Leigh Thomas

LONDON/BERLIN/PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) – An unemployed builder sits on the pavement, begging for small change next to a slogan saying “EU policy at work – British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour”.

The arresting image comes from an election poster for the United Kingdom Independence Party, a once-fringe movement that wants to withdraw Britain from the EU and looks set to garner the most votes in next week’s European Parliament polls.

Worry about immigration is now higher in Britain than in any other EU country bar Malta. A quarter of Britons in a recent survey named it as one of their top two concerns, compared with 19 percent in Germany, the country with the third-highest level of unease, and fewer than 10 percent in Italy and France.

Immigration has become a hot topic in Europe as it recovers only slowly from years of economic crisis.

Anti-EU parties across the bloc are demanding borders be shut to new migrants or numbers rationed. EU rules mean people are free to move from the poorer east to the richer west and thousands of people from Africa and Asia continue to risk perilous routes across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.

Britain certainly has plenty of immigrants. The country’s population of foreigners has risen by more than a million since the last EU elections in 2009 – a bigger increase than anywhere in the EU apart from Italy where foreign residents make up 7 percent of the total population.

But most economic studies suggest that for Europe’s biggest economies, acting as a magnet for foreign workers is more of a blessing than a curse – at least until they stop working.

“Overall the impact of immigration has been broadly positive for the economy. There has been little or no negative impact for employment,” said Jonathan Portes, director of Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

A study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last year showed that immigrants to Britain paid more in taxes than they took out in pensions and benefits by a margin equivalent to 0.5 percent of GDP.

This is better than the OECD average of 0.35 percent, while in France and Germany immigrants were a net drain of 0.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Those figures reflect high pension costs – in Germany’s case, partly because of the relatively elderly ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union who were encouraged to migrate after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in France because the age profile of immigrants is older than average.

Facing a declining and ageing population, German industry has actively sought immigration. By 2050, a third of the population will be above the age of 65, according to government data, and the population is seen shrinking by a quarter.

More than 7.6 million foreigners were registered as living in Germany at the end of last year, the highest number since records started in 1967. Some hot spots such as Cologne, Dortmund and Hanover have struggled with a large number of poor immigrants from Eastern Europe.

But new incoming workers tend not to compete with the indigenous population for jobs.

“Foreigners often are not put into communicative jobs. In the supermarket for instance, the foreigner works in the warehouse, while the German works at the till. Those are not exactly the same jobs,” said Herbert Bruecker, a professor at the Institute for Employment Research.

Portes saw a similar trend in Britain though he said some people in lower-skilled jobs have experienced downward pressure on wages as a result of outside competition.

“A lot of people who work in food processing are from eastern Europe,” he said. “Often they don’t get paid very much, and the conditions are not very nice.”

The situation is mirrored in Italy where most foreigners are employed in low-skilled jobs in industry, construction, seasonal labour or domestic care, a sector where 4 out of 5 workers come from abroad.

Nor do new incomers tend to overburden the welfare state.

“On average the foreigners still receive fewer transfer payments than the German population, simply because they are younger and the bulk of transfer payments in Germany is pensions,” said Bruecker.

Nonetheless, there is growing pressure to tighten up.

A German government panel recommended in March limiting job-seekers’ stay to three months if they fail to find work, expelling those who commit benefit fraud and blocking their return for a certain period. The panel also proposed tougher bureaucratic controls on those seeking benefits.

Britain has also introduced measures to limit access to benefits for EU migrants who earn less than 150 pounds ($250) a week, something EU officials have warned may breach European law.

FRENCH IMMIGRATION WANING

In sheer numbers France has one of the biggest foreign-born populations among developed countries at 7.36 million but it is no longer a top destination for immigrants as it once was.

Data from EU statistics agency Eurostat showed that in 2012, there was net foreign migration of 112,000 into France, compared with 239,000 in Britain and 366,000 in Germany.

“France hasn’t been a big destination for immigration for years and the illusion that it is comes from the tendency to confuse immigrants and the children of immigrants,” OECD head international migration Jean-Christophe Dumont said.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who polls indicate could come top in next week’s election, told Reuters EU rules stopped France taking steps to keep foreigners out.

“Europe is a sieve with totally open borders, but EU requirements mean we are forced to put in place policies that attract immigration,” she said, blaming generous welfare that cannot be restricted to French citizens.

Britain’s ruling Conservative party pledged to reduce annual net immigration to the tens of thousands when it took power in 2010 and has had to crack down on immigration from outside the EU.

Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London and one of the party’s more pro-immigration voices, said that created the unintended consequence of barring high-skilled people from countries like Australia and New Zealand so as to hit targets.

“There’s no reason, in my view, why we need to have completely untrammelled movement from the EU,” he said in a recent interview.

A NIESR study into the British government’s plan to halve net immigration said it would reduce GDP per head by 2.7 percent by 2060 and require a rate of income tax more than 2 percent higher than otherwise to fund a more elderly population.

However both Portes and the OECD said that immigration was not a permanent solution to Europe’s ageing workforces.

“Labour migrants’ … net contribution generally tends to be positive, at least in the short run. Nevertheless, in the long run … it is neither a major burden nor a major panacaea for the public purse,” the OECD said.

Much depends on whether migrants retire in the country in which they worked, or return to their country of origin.

Whatever the economic evidence, the anti-immigration message is resonating in France, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Austria and Britain.

Matthew Goodwin, a University of Nottingham professor, said UKIP leader Nigel Farage had scored by conflating the issue of immigration with opposition to the EU.

“They have doubled down on that ‘left behind’ electorate … by merging immigration with the issue of Europe, and combining that with a big side dish of anti-establishment populism and attacking Westminster elites, attacking elites in Brussels who they allege have colluded to undermine the voices of the left behind,” he said.

Farage’s pitch is that unlike the main parties he will talk straight to the British electorate. But as often in politics, all is not what it seems.

A few days after he unveiled UKIP’s poster, the apparently destitute British builder turned out to have been played by an actor – who was an Irish immigrant. ($1 = 0.5939 British Pounds) (Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Rome and Mark John in Paris. Editing by Mike Peacock)

• Europe News
• US International News

President Obama said Tuesday he is still holding out hope that Congress will find time to pass some form of immigration reform before politicians become completely consumed with the upcoming midterm elections.

“We’ve got this narrow window. The closer we get to the midterm elections, the harder it is to get things done around here,” Mr. Obama said at a White House meeting of top law enforcement officials, Reuters reported. “We’ve got maybe a window … of two, three months to get the ball rolling in the House of Representatives.”

The president reiterated that he would be willing to accept a compromise as long as the bill that reaches his desk affords “some path to citizenship.”

The Senate passed immigration legislation 11 months ago with bipartisan support, but the House has yet to introduce a corresponding bill.

House Speaker John Boehner has chided fellow Republicans for not taking action on the issue.

“Here’s the attitude. Ohhhh. Don’t make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard,” Speaker Boehner told a luncheon crowd at Brown’s Run County Club in Madison Township in April, according to Cincinnati.com.

Boehner has since said those comments were meant as good-natured teasing and that the true onus for the lack of immigration reform falls on the president.

“I wanted to make sure the members understood that the biggest impediment we have in moving immigration reform is that the American people don’t trust the president to enforce or implement the law that we may or may not pass,” Boehner said, according to the Associated Press.

While Obama has made very clear that he would like to see a new immigration bill pass Congress, recent reports indicate he has been positioning himself to take executive action within the confines of existing immigration laws.

In March, Obama ordered Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to review how current immigration law is implemented, the Monitor’s Linda Feldman reported last month.

In late April, the Associated Press reported that Secretary Johnson has been considering allowing immigrants living in the US illegally to remain in the country as long as they do not have serious criminal records.

Some evidence suggests the Obama administration has already been turning a blind eye to undocumented immigrants who do not have a criminal history.

A report released last month by the Migration Policy Institute revealed that three quarters of those immigrants deported by the administration in the last five years had criminal records, according to The New York Times.

The report also found that 85 percent of immigrants flagged for possible deportation in 2013 were not actually deported because they did not have criminal records, fueling Republican criticisms that the president has not been uniformly enforcing existing laws, the Times reported.

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• Why Christian leaders put aside differences to push immigration reform (+video)
• Immigration reform: If Obama moves on his own, how big a political risk? (+video)

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• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• President Obama
• immigration reform

President Barack Obama is holding out the prospect that immigration legislation might pass Congress this year and is urging police officials to join with evangelical Christians and businesses to pressure House Republicans.

Obama is trying to rally supporters of rewriting U.S. immigration law to press for action during a two- to three-month window before lawmakers’ attention shifts to the midterm congressional elections in November.

More from Bloomberg.com: U.S. Is No. 1, China Is So Yesterday

“People expect I’m going to be in favor of comprehensive immigration reform,” he said today in remarks to law-enforcement groups. “It’s more important to get over the hump when they hear from unexpected voices.”

Evangelical groups, which have backed Republicans in the past, are a “powerful voice” that can be combined with business groups and companies such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Caterpillar Inc. to prod House Republicans to pass a bill that the Senate already approved, he said.

More from Bloomberg.com: Glacial Region’s Melt Past ‘Point of No Return,’ NASA Says

The Democratic-led Senate passed an immigration bill last June that includes increased border security and a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

House Speaker John Boehner in January published a framework for a law that would legalize undocumented workers without granting U.S. citizenship. That was put on hold when Republican lawmakers pushed back.

More from Bloomberg.com: The Secret Brazil Happy Meal McDonald’s Keeps Under Wraps

Enforcing Law

A spokesman said Boehner hasn’t changed his mind on opposing the Senate immigration bill.

“We have a broken immigration system, but it is impossible to make progress until the American people –- and their elected representatives –- have faith that the president himself will actually enforce the law as written,” Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Some lawmakers and advocates for a new immigration law said there may be an opportunity to advance legislation in June or July. Primary votes will be over in as many as 32 states by July, and House members will be at the Capitol for four weeks.

This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. “It is doable, absolutely.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net Joe Sobczyk, Mark McQuillan

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• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues

WASHINGTON, DC–(Marketwired – May 12, 2014) – Notable immigration attorneys Denise C. Hammond and Becki L. Young announced today the launch of Hammond Young Immigration Law LLC, a new law firm committed to transcending borders to help clients navigate the complex maze of US immigration laws and policies. The founding partners have been practicing in the immigration field for a combined total of nearly 50 years, and their joint client base will have immediate access to up-to-the-minute guidance to meet the growing compliance and workload challenges facing employers and individuals today.

Hammond, who established her previous firm Hammond Immigration Law in 1985, has devoted her practice exclusively to immigration law for discerning clients who expect quality legal service and personal attention. By joining with Young, the new firm will continue to provide thoughtful, ethical and results-oriented immigration law solutions to meet the needs and expectations of its clients, as well as the invaluable public policy insight to navigate highly complex immigration laws and policies.

“Washington, DC is the epicenter of immigration laws, regulations and policies that can change on a moment’s notice and our in-depth knowledge and understanding of the regulatory and legislative process puts us at the forefront to keep our clients informed about immigration law and compliance issues,” noted Hammond. “I saw the obvious benefit of joining our strengths and felt this was an important and necessary combination, which would be a great benefit to our clients. Ultimately, our goal is to make complex immigration issues easy for clients to understand.”

Within the area of immigration law, the new firm offers a breadth of experience and strength typically found in larger firms. By adopting a personalized model for the delivery of legal services and aligning client and firm interests, Hammond Young will use a wide array of immigration solutions to better serve the needs of its clients, an entrepreneurial approach, and immediate access to legal counsel at a crucial period when immigration reform is potentially on the horizon.

Young, formerly with Baker & McKenzie, noted, “I was determined at this unique juncture to best serve my immigration clients by combining practices. I have a great admiration for Denise and respect her close attention to details to meet her clients’ needs, especially with exceedingly complex immigration challenges. The new firm will enable us to better serve our clients with a lean, responsive and client-centric approach.”

Hammond Young Immigration Law LLC, located in Maryland near the DC Beltway, is focused on employment-related immigration and compliance issues, visas for investors, global immigration matters, individual immigration matters and complex citizenship and naturalization cases. www.HYImmigration.com

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