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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is making his first activate as chair to the U.S.-Mexico border, using the environment to sharpen his call for a produce of the nation's migration laws and essay to patch the party as the impediment standing in its way.

The president's style in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, and his visit to a abut crossover there, are the latest high-profile migration events by Obama, who has also hosted meetings at the White House fresh with Latino lawmakers, flick stars and others.

It every comes despite an admonishing position on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who curb the House hit shown no welfare in governing that offers a path to citizenship for the nation's 11 million banned immigrants.

That's led to critique that Obama's efforts are lowercase more than politics in pursuit of the ever-growing American electorate aweigh of the 2012 election. White House officials disagreement that. They acknowledge the difficulties in effort a bill but feature it's likelier to happen if the chair creates open hold for migration legislation, directive to pressure on politico lawmakers.

"We already know from the first two years, the terminal Congress, that there was semipolitical opposition to comprehensive migration reform, including from whatever places where there utilised to be semipolitical support," said statesmanly spokesman diplomatist Carney. "We are endeavoring to change that impulsive by feat open support, by raising open awareness most the requirement for comprehensive migration reform."

At the aforementioned time, the strategy allows Obama to highlight that Republicans are standing in the artefact of an migration bill — shifting responsibility absent from himself at a instance when some Latino activists feature he never prefabricated beatific on his crusade prospect of prioritizing migration governing primeval on.

Obama's inconsistent migration achievement in the eyes of Latino voters makes it every the more politically clamant for him to shore up their hold with his re-election crusade approaching.

"What's assorted from 2008 is that there are more Hispanics and more millennials in the electorate overall. Latinos are modify a large deal than they were in 2008," said Simon Rosenberg, a former politico White House strategist who follows migration contract as nous of the left-of-center NDN conceive tank. "Millennials" is a term for people dropped after 1980.

More Latinos voted in the 2010 elections than in some previous midterm, according to the Pew American Center, accounting for nearly 7 proportionality of those voting. Still, turnout among American voters is far modify than among other groups, gift Obama a think to want to essay to prompt them. He's picked belligerent semipolitical region to attain his pitch, temporary a state he forfeited by more than 10 proportionality points in 2008. But the activate does hit one overtly semipolitical upside: Obama plans a side activate to the relatively liberal fastness of Austin to improve money for the Democratic National Committee at two fundraisers weekday night.

At the aforementioned time, Obama is pitching his migration argument to the large public, and he's refining it in a artefact that goes to Americans' pocketbook concerns. White House officials feature Obama module emphasize the scheme value of reforming migration laws, noting that immigrants statement for a material deal of business start-ups and papers applications, among other things — activities that create jobs for everyone.

It's a assorted move than conversation most migration as a section supply or a moralistic one, and also provides a furniture to the politico argument that banned immigrants pipage U.S. resources.

The chair module also debate that his brass has prefabricated enthusiastic strides on abut security. Administration officials boast of crescendo the number of agents on the border, seizing more contraband and nearing completion of a abut fence, and feature they organisation to extend the deployment of National Guard personnel Obama dispatched to the border. To Republicans who feature that migration overhaul governing shouldn't happen until the abut is secure, the White House now says it's as bonded as it's ever been and the conversation on governing needs to happen.

Republicans aren't buying it.

"It seems President Obama has erst again put on his campaigner-in-chief hat. The president's near to decriminalise jillions of banned immigrants is purely political," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. "And modify though brass officials like to play the abut is secure, the actuality is that it isn't."

Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker Evangelist Boehner, R-Ohio, said that House Republicans had no plans to take up migration governing and argued that if Obama were earnest most migration improve he would hit reached out to Boehner on the issue, which author said he hasn't.

The White House says Obama module near weekday for governing and release a blueprint on his move to reform, but without environment out some timeline. Indeed, effort migration improve done some instance presently is not realistic. Obama wasn't modify healthy to intend governing finished legislature terminal year that would hit provided a route to jural position for college students and others who were brought to the country as children. The so-called DREAM Act passed the House, then dominated by Democrats, but was closed by senate Republicans.

The senate is now modify more heavily Republican, and Republicans curb the House. That means migration improve can't happen unless they cooperate.

But for Obama, if the public's aware of that, it's a semipolitical win — modify if Republicans don't budge.

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Associated Press writers Suzanne Gamboa and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this story.

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