President Obama predicted that Congress could pass a reform bill by the end of the summer when he said that last-minute obstacles are "resolvable" this week.
The president gave several interviews with Spanish-language television networks this week in which he voiced confidence in a bipartisan Senate group that appears to be on the cusp of unveiling a draft bill.
"If we have a bill introduced at the beginning of next month as these senators indicate it will be, then I'm confident that we can get it done certainly before the end of the summer," Obama told Telemundo.
Overhauling the nation’s immigration system is a top priority for Obama during his second term.
Irish Voice editorial: VP Joe Biden’s vital message on Irish America’s attitude to immigration reform and the importance of our roots
The President made the remarks as four of the senators from the bipartisan working group traveled to Mexico for a tour of the border on Wednesday.
The senators met with Border Patrol agents and did a helicopter tour of the area, the New York Times reports.
During the tour of the Arizona-Mexico border, Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, wrote on Twitter that they witnessed a woman in Nogales, Ariz., "successfully climb an 18-ft bollard fence a few yards away from us."
McCain said that while there has been progress, “the border is still not as secure as we want it to be or expect it to be.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said the tour gave him a deeper understanding of the region.
"You can read and you can study and you can talk but until you see things it doesn't become reality," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I'll be able to explain this to my colleagues. Many of my colleagues say, 'Why do we need to do anything more on the border?' and we do. We should do more."
Watch a New York Times report on Securing the Border - Immigration Reform 2013:
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