But for comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship.

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However, without comprehensive immigration reform, our work at the City and State levels can only go so far.

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"Every time Democrats offer to work together on comprehensive immigration reform, Republicans find an excuse to fight sensible change, " Reid said.

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And what we could not get was a single Republican, including the 20 who had previously voted for comprehensive immigration reform, to step up and say, we will work with you to make this happen.

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"My pledge to you and your government -- but more importantly, the people of Mexico -- is that I'll work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform, " Bush said at a ceremony welcoming him to Mexico.

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But it was only in 2006 that work began on drawing up a comprehensive plan for health-care reform.

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The solution to illegal immigration is for Congress to combine a viable immigration enforcement regime with a vastly improved system of legal work visas, either through smaller individual bills or as part of comprehensive immigration reform.

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So if the good congressman from Utah has a particular issue on lobbying reform that he wants to work with us on, we may not able to agree on a comprehensive package on everything but there may be some component parts that we can work on.

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But we'll also continue to work on those things that the American people expect us to work on -- on creating jobs, growing the economy, making sure that we get comprehensive immigration reform, making sure that we move forward towards getting a comprehensive set of initiatives in place to reduce gun violence, and other things.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing