President Obama on Arizona, SB 1070, and immigration reform

From his press conference this a.m.:

Q Mr. President, you announced — or the White House announced on — two days ago that you were going to send 1,200 people to — 1,200 members of the National Guard to the border. I wanted to — if you could — precise what their target is going to be, what you’re planning to achieve with that, if you could clarify a bit more the mission that they’re going to have. And also, on Arizona, after you have been — criticized so much the immigration law that has been approved there, would you support the boycott that some organizations are calling towards that state?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay. I’ve indicated that I don’t approve of the Arizona law. I think it’s the wrong approach. I understand the frustrations of the people of Arizona and a lot of folks along the border that that border has not been entirely secured in a — in a way that is both true our — to our traditions as a nation of law and as a nation of immigrants.

You know, I’m the president of the United States. I don’t endorse boycotts or not endorse boycotts. That’s something that the private citizens can make a decision about.

What my administration is doing is examining very closely this Arizona law and its implications for the civil rights and civil liberties of the people in Arizona, as well as the concern that you start getting a patchwork of 50 different immigration laws around the country, in an area that is inherently the job of the federal government.

Now, for the federal government to do its job, everybody has got to step up. And so I tried to be as clear as I could this week. And I will repeat it to everybody who’s here.

We have to have a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. The time to get moving on this is now. And I am prepared to work with both parties and members of Congress, to get a bill that does a good job securing our borders, holds employers accountable, makes sure that those who have come here illegally have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and get right by the law.

We have the opportunity to do that. We’ve done — we’ve gotten a vote of a supermajority in the Senate just four years ago. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to recreate that bipartisan spirit, to get this problem solved.

Now, with respect to the National Guardsmen and women, you know, I have authorized up to 1,200 National Guardspersons, in a plan that was actually shaped last year.

So this not simply in response to the Arizona law.

And what we find is, is that National Guardspersons can help on intelligence, dealing with both drug and human trafficking along the borders. They can relieve border guards so that the border guards then can be in charge of law enforcement in those areas. So there are a lot of functions that they can carry out that helps leverage and increase the resources available in this area.

By the way, we didn’t just send National Guard; we’ve also got a package of $500 million in additional resources because, for example, if we are doing a better job dealing with trafficking along the border, we’ve also got to make sure that we’ve got prosecutors down there who can prosecute those cases.

But that the key point I want to emphasize to you is that I don’t see these issues in isolation. We’re not going to solve the problem just solely as a consequence of sending National Guard troops down there. We’re going to solve this problem because we have created an orderly, fair, humane immigration framework in which people are able to immigrate to this country in a legal fashion, employers are held accountable for hiring legally present workers.

And I think we can craft that system if everybody’s willing to step up. And I told the Republican Caucus when I met with them this week, I don’t even need you to meet me halfway; meet me a quarter of the way. I’ll bring in the majority of Democrats to a smart, sensible, comprehensive immigration reform bill, but I’m going to have to have some help, given the rules of the Senate, where a simple majority’s not enough.