Obama Ready With Own Plan407 comments

President Barack Obama began rallying supporters Tuesday to back his immigration-overhaul plan, while Republican Sen. Marco Rubio worked to persuade conservatives in his party to support a similar bipartisan plan that has gained momentum in the Senate.

Mr. Obama told supporters in Las Vegas that he was encouraged by the set of principles released Monday by eight senators. "For the first time in many years, Republicans and Democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together," he said.

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President Barack Obama said in Las Vegas Tuesday his approach would benefit those who want 'to earn their way into the American story.'

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But he cautioned that the path would get tougher as the legislative process advanced, and said he would release his own proposal, already drafted, if the process became bogged down in Congress.

Mr. Obama's role in the immigration debate so far is calibrated to generate excitement among supporters while trying to avoid alienating Republicans who may be hesitant to back legislation if it is too closely identified with him. "We have to pass this in a bipartisan way," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), one of the senators working on the issue. "He's giving the Republicans their space."

At the same time, Mr. Obama's 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, said a newly created arm of the campaign, Organizing for Action, would email the president's grass-roots backers and ask them to call members of Congress.

Mr. Obama laid out his own set of principles to guide an immigration-law overhaul, which was largely similar to the Senate framework. Both seek new border security measures, a tougher employer-verification system and a path to citizenship for the 11 million people now in the country illegally. Mr. Obama also agreed with Republicans who said newly legal immigrants shouldn't qualify for subsidies under the 2010 health-care law.