Immigration reform not impossible: Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: Rejecting the opinion that immigration reform is impossible, US President Barack Obama has urged the Congress to pass the legislation in this regard which when signed into law would pave the way for citizenship to some 11 million undocumented people.

"It's interesting to listen to the pundits and the analysts, and some of the conventional wisdom talks about, oh, the politics of immigration reform seem impossible now. I fundamentally reject that," Obama said at a fund raiser event in Weston Massachusetts.

"I will tell the Speaker of the House that he needs to reject that. Because if you met those kids today, you'd know that politics can't play a part in it," he said.

"If you think that because of politics you want to maintain a status quo that's broken; because of politics we're going to forego the economic growth and the deficit reduction, and the border security, and the fairness and the opportunity that immigration reform represents -- you don't belong in Washington," he said.

"Because at a certain point, the issues are important enough to fight for," Obama said.