US President Barack Obama today called for the reform of the nation's "broken" immigration system, urging both parties to work together but making no new proposals of his own, according to dpa. Having passed a major health care bill earlier this year and being close to signing legislation to reform the financial system, Obama is now turning his attention to immigration, which in recent months has become an increasingly divisive debate. Speaking at American University outside Washington, Obama said reform must address deportation policies and improve border security while also ending the exploitation of illegal immigrants in the form of unjust wages. "The system is broken and everybody knows it," Obama said. He announced no new policy initiatives nor did he set a timetable for accomplishing the task. Instead he urged Republicans and Democrats to come together and draft a comprehensive immigration reform law and re-expressed his support for the Dream Act, which allows children whose parents who came to the United States illegally to attend school. Obama also warned against states acting alone, criticizing an Arizona law passed in April designed to crack down on illegal immigrants by requiring law enforcement to check the documents of anyone suspected of unlawfully residing there. Police have criticized the law as being unenforceable - a view shared by Obama - and otherd see it as simply racist. Obama called the Arizona law "ill conceived" but also a result of states taking the issue into "their own hands" because the federal government has failed to act. "These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American and legal residents ... because of what they look like or how they sound," Obama said, adding he will not ignore the issue. "This administration will not just kick the can down the road," he said, blaming years of political posturing and the power of special interest groups for delays in reform.
