President Obama again urged Congress to pass immigration reform in his weekly address on Saturday, saying there's "no reason" lawmakers can't come together to put a bill on his desk by "the end of the summer."



The president commended the work being done in the Senate, where a bipartisan "gang of eight" senators has authored a compromise bill that would, broadly speaking, strengthen border security, crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers, modernize the legal immigration system, and provide an earned pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.



"The bill before the Senate isn't perfect," Mr. Obama said on Saturday. "It's a compromise. Nobody will get everything they want - not Democrats, not Republicans, not me. But it is a bill that's largely consistent with the principles I've repeatedly laid out for common-sense immigration reform."



"That's what immigration reform looks like. Smarter enforcement. A pathway to earned citizenship. Improvements to the legal immigration system. They're all common-sense steps," he continued. "They've got broad support - from Republicans and Democrats, CEOs and labor leaders, law enforcement and clergy. So there is no reason that Congress can't work together to send a bill to my desk by the end of the summer."