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Washington (CNN) - Disagreement among Democrats over immigration language in the health care bill is complicating efforts by House Democratic leaders to round up votes needed to pass a bill by this weekend.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are pushing back against the addition of a provision to the bill that would bar illegal immigrants from buying health insurance using their own funds. This measure is already included in the Senate Finance Committee's version of the bill and is backed by the White House.

The House Democrats' bill already includes requirements for immigrants to verify their citizenship before getting federal subsidies to buy health insurance.  But some conservative Democrats have indicated they support the Senate language.

Rep Charles Gonzalez, a leading Member of Hispanic Caucus, said he and other Latino members will make their case to President Obama in a meeting at the White House this afternoon.  "We are going to ask him to revisit the manner in which they are approaching it and what's going on in the Senate."

"I understand the politics of it, but it is it very bad policy and I'd love for once the policy to trump the politics,"  Gonzalez told reporters.

Gonzalez said he and other members of Congresswant to keep the current version of the House bill - but if it's changed to add this stronger language, they could try to block it.  "Members of the Hispanic Caucus alone, we believe we have enough members that would be willing to express their disapproval through a vote that could be the difference," said Gonzalez.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that nearly three-quarters of all Americans would like to see a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants in the country.

Seventy-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday morning called for a drop in the number of illegal immigrants, with 22 percent saying the number should remain the same and just 3 percent stating that there should be an increase in the number of illegal immigrants. That 73 percent figure is the highest number since CNN started asking this question four years ago.

According to the poll, 37 percent want to see all illegal immigrants deported, also the highest number since the questions was first asked in 2006, and another 23 percent say that the number of illegal immigrants in the country should be decreased significantly.

"Support for deporting all illegal immigrants is highest among older Americans and people who live in rural areas. It's highest in the South and Midwest and nearly as high in the Northeast, but only one in four Westerners think that all illegal immigrants should be deported," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted October 16-18, with 1,038 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

TOPICS: Illegal immigration

Full results (pdf)

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3 out of 4 want illegal immigration decreased

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Will immigration reform return as the next big congressional fight? CNN's Dick Uliano
found high hopes at a Latino rally - but the political currents may berunning against those who want to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The number of unauthorized immigrants who might illegally access health care subsidies under currently debated health care bills is too uncertain to calculate, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

The independent, nonpartisan legislative office estimated earlier this month that the bill proposed by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, would cost $774 billion.

In a letter Tuesday to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the budget office said its cost calculation included those who may try to cheat the system by misreporting income or family circumstance as well as access by unauthorized immigrants.

However, "we have no basis for quantifying those factors separately for this or other proposals," the letter said.

Grassley had asked the agency for details about health care coverage for illegal immigrants under both Baucus' proposal and the House's health care proposal.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama is rejecting any notion that he has lost ground in the debate over reforming the nation's health care system - despite an August congressional recess dominated by often angry town hall meetings, and a recent march on Washington organized by conservatives opposed to his administration's policies.

In an interview that airs Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, CNN Chief National Correspondent John King pointed out that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, recently told a conservative group Republicans were "'winning the health care debate.'"

The president's response to McConnell was simple but pointed.

"Well, you know... they were saying they were winning during the election, too," Obama told King.
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico (CNN) - President Obama said Monday at the North American Leaders Summit he is committed to "fix the broken immigration system."

The three North American countries depend on their borders being safe and secure, Obama said, adding that he supports "orderly and legal" migration, while respecting the American tradition of welcoming immigrants.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - In a signal that the Obama administration is changing tactics in dealing with illegal immigration, hundreds of businesses were notified Wednesday that federal authorities will be taking a closer look at their employment records to determine if they are hiring illegal aliens.

Kelly Nantel, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said businesses in every state and industry are being audited, "from agriculture-related businesses, to service businesses, to high-tech industry and everything in between." The companies were selected based on leads from ICE offices around the country.

On Wednesday, 652 audit notices were issued. By comparison, only 503 such notices were issued in all of fiscal year 2008, according to an agency statement.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama began tackling the contentious issue of immigration reform Thursday, hosting a bipartisan group of congressmen at the White House for what the administration called the "launch of a policy conversation."

The meeting, which was delayed twice as economic issues took center stage, was designed to be an "honest discussion of issues where we can identify areas of agreement, and areas where we still have work to do," according to the White House.

"I'm confident that if we enter into this (process) with the notion that this is a nation of laws that have to be observed and this is a nation of immigrants, then we're going to create a stronger nation for our children and our grandchildren," Obama said.

The president conceded, however, that "comprehensive immigration reform is difficult. We know it's a sensitive and politically volatile issue."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he wants to work with members of Congress, including former Republican presidential rival Sen. John McCain, to revive efforts at immigration reform.

"We want to move this process," Obama said at a news conference on his 100th day in office. "We can't continue with a broken immigration system. It's not good for anybody."

Obama said he hopes a working group of lawmakers will begin crafting details of what would be in reform legislation and that he expects the process to be under way within the year.

Both Obama and McCain supported an ultimately failed plan backed by then-President George Bush that would have fined illegal immigrants living in the United States but provided a pathway to citizenship for some.

(CNN) – Word that President Obama might pile comprehensive immigration reform onto his already-full plate reignited calls from some for an urgent overhaul and brought cries from others that the timing couldn't be worse.

"It's more important than ever to address immigration reform right now," said Ian Haney Lopez, a professor of law at the University of California-Berkeley.

The financial and cultural dynamics of the economy make reform so urgent, he said.

"I worry that in the context of an economic downturn, the cultural response of that economic downturn will be to search for someone to blame, and that someone usually turns out to be a foreigner or someone perceived as foreigner," he said.

As a financial dynamic, he said, the economy also calls for immigration reform: "It's a mistake to understand immigrants as a drain on the economy. Immigrants in fact are the engine of development in this country and always have been," he said.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Multiple Obama administration officials tell CNN that the White House is not pushing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year. While it's a top priority for the President's first term, White House spokesperson Nick Shapiro says "the president has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken…but the economy comes first."

The White House has made no secret of the fact that the President wants to see health care and energy reform passed this year, and would be loathe to cripple those efforts with a fight over an issue as controversial as immigration reform. And White House strategists have to be keenly aware of the possible impact on House Democrats from red districts.

But the mood on Capitol Hill could be different.

Jim Manley, Sen. Harry Reid's senior communications advisor, tells CNN that the Majority Leader "intends to try to take comprehensive immigration reform to the floor later this year, probably in the fall." The situation in the House is trickier – a vote on the hot-button issue could hurt freshman Democrats who were elected in swing districts.
But House Democrats were presented with compelling evidence that voters want to see them trying to fix the immigration system. During the House Democrats' February retreat, Pete Brodnitz - who works for the same firm that does polling for the president - argued that Democratic House members should promote their own immigration reform plans.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The White House is planning to start dealing with the nation's immigration system as early as this May, according to two senior administration officials.

The president will rely on a bipartisan, diverse group of experts to help build the framework for legislation, the officials said.

One official noted that immigration will "not be on the same track" as other key initiatives like health care and energy, and "nobody's promising legislation or a vote this year."

Meanwhile, the administration is dismissing suggestions that taking on immigration this year will put pressure on the president's already ambitious domestic agenda. Moving forward on immigration would fulfill another campaign promise.

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(CNN) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she was standing by her statement that enforcement of some existing immigration laws is "un-American."

"ICE raids that separate parents from their children in the middle of the night are un-American, and I stand by that," Pelosi said when questioned about her remarks made last week at an immigration rally in San Francisco.

"We have to enforce our laws, we have to control our borders..." the California congresswoman told reporters. "We have to protect our workers, we have to, I believe, have a path to legalization for people who are in our country who are not fully documented. But we don't have to kick in doors in the middle of the night and take fathers out of their homes and think that we are solving the issue when we really need comprehensive immigration reform."

On Saturday, at an immigration rally in San Francisco, Pelosi criticized the practice of work site and housing raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Pelosi praised the predominantly immigrant audience, calling them "very, very patriotic" for "taking responsibility for country's future" by attending the rally on a Saturday night

"Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families," Pelosi said Saturday. "It must be stopped. What value system is that? I think it's un-American. I think it's un-American."

Photo credit: CNN.
On CNN's "State of the Union," CNN host and chief national correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country. King recently traveled to Arizona, to explore the debate over how to control illegal immigration.

SAN LUIS, Arizona (CNN) - The Yuma desert is below: San Luis, Arizona, to one side and San Luis, Mexico, to the other. On this clear day, the Colorado River is glistening, birds playfully circling over what any map defines as the U.S.-Mexico border in this area.

But from a helicopter above, the border is a steel barrier that stands out along the riverbank and against the desert sands, and is the dividing line that gets the most attention from those crying to cross illegally and those who believe recent efforts to bolster U.S. border security have been riddled with wrong choices.

Just this past week, eight Democrats in Congress wrote President Obama urging him to halt any further construction of the fence, one of the many border- and immigration-related political debates that have carried over from the Bush administration.

Full Story

Watch "State of the Union" this Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. ET.

The Statement:

In an Obama campaign Spanish-language radio ad aimed at Latino voters that aired in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada during the second week of September, the narrator says, "John McCain abandoned us on immigration reform rather than confront the leaders of the Republican Party."

Does Obama's radio ad accurately describe McCain on immigration?

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – A pro-immigration group announced Wednesday it is beefing up efforts to promote its agenda, eight months before voters head to the polls.

America’s Voice has hired pro-immigration operative Frank Sharry to lead the organization, which will focus on “mobilizing” immigrant voters, and establishing a “campaign-style … rapid response war room.” Sharry is the former head of the National Immigration Forum.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released this week shows that immigration ranks fifth behind the economy, Iraq, health care, and terrorism on the list of the most important issues heading into the elections.

LAREDO, Texas (CNN) – Saturday morning, Mike Huckabee took a trip to the border he talks about securing at every campaign stop.

Standing on the Northern bank of the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas, Huckabee looked across to Mexico as a Border Patrol officer briefed him on the efforts being undertaken to stop illegal immigration.

Huckabee, a strong proponent of building a fence along the Southern border, told reporters that it was not about keeping people out, but keeping bad people out. He gave examples of drug and human traffickers as well as terrorists.

“I don’t resent that people want to come here, I’ve always said I thank God every day I’m in a country people are trying to break into, not in a country they’re trying to break out of,” said Huckabee, flanked by Chuck Norris and Rep. Duncan Hunter who has built a fence in his Southern California district.

As the former Arkansas governor tries to drum up support among conservatives just days before the Texas primary, illegal immigration is one of the issues Huckabee has repeatedly used to differentiate himself from frontrunner John McCain.

He almost never mentions McCain by name but in Lubbock on Friday, Huckabee said he’s the only candidate who believes the borders should be secured, as opposed to “wholesale amnesty.”

Asked Saturday if McCain’s position on immigration was too soft, Huckabee refused to answer, “I’m not going to characterize his position because I think that’s not really a healthy thing for me to get into.”

Instead, he reiterated that a border fence favors immigrants who have waited patiently for their legal status and helps fight the “assumption that everyone who is here with some Hispanic background is here illegally. That’s wrong, and that should never happen in the United States of America.”

– CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt

Watch John King's report about immigration and the Republican presidential race.

(CNN) - In an effort to preserve his front-runner status in Iowa's Republican presidential nomination race, Mitt Romney is using the hot-button issue of immigration against his rivals.

Chief National Correspondent John King was on the campaign trail with Romney in Iowa and filed this report.

Related video: Watch Romney's new ad