Obama Speaks About Immigration Overhaul: President Obama made the case for changes in immigration policy in a speech in San Francisco during which a man heckled him.
SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama is often heckled, but it is rare for a guest who is part of a White House-approved backdrop to shout out a protest while the president is in mid-speech.
But that is what happened here on Monday when Mr. Obama called on Congress to pass an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
"Mr. Obama, my family has been separated for 19 months now!" yelled a young man who stood with others on the riser behind the president at the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center.
Mr. Obama continued to speak, but the man did not let up. "You have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country," he said.
The president turned to address him. "Actually, I don't," he said. "And that's why we're here."
As the event's organizers tried to remove the man, Mr. Obama signaled no. "I respect the passion of these young people because they feel deeply about the concerns for their families," he said. But, he continued, the United States is a nation of laws, and "it is not simply a matter of us just saying we're going to violate the law."
In his remarks, Mr. Obama reiterated his support for an immigration overhaul split into multiple pieces of legislation, as House Republicans have proposed.
"We can carve that bird if you want," said Mr. Obama, who will pardon a Thanksgiving turkey on Wednesday after he returns to Washington. "Drumstick here, breast meat there — as long as all the pieces get done soon."
His acceptance of a piecemeal approach is part of an effort to keep immigration legislation alive after House Republican leaders made it clear they would not accept the broad framework of the bipartisan bill the Senate passed this year. They compared that measure to Mr. Obama's health care law, saying it was another unwieldy federal program full of hidden mandates and poorly understood provisions.
But some in the Republican Party are warning their colleagues to express their objections carefully, and not just for fear of alienating Latino voters.
Asia has passed Latin America in recent years as the largest source of immigrants to the United States. "On the national level, at least on the presidential, you've seen throughout the years more and more support for the Democratic Party," said Christine Chen, the executive director of the nonpartisan group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote. But "even a month before the election, 30 percent of our electorate that was polled was actually undecided."
Shawn Steel, a Republican committeeman from California who has pressed his party to reach out to Asian-American voters, said that many Asians were trapped in a bureaucratic backlog even though "they followed the rules, they paid the fees, they had the interviews."
"Largely because of the inefficient immigration policy, they are being denied an expedited hearing," Mr. Steel said. He argued that an "aggressive amnesty" would give a "special favoritism to those that did not wait in line," which would be unfair to many Asians.
The broad bipartisan bill that passed the Senate in June offers major benefits for Asian immigrants but also includes provisions that could reduce future immigration from some Asian countries.
The bill would eliminate the cap on the number of residency visas, known as green cards, available each year for spouses and children of legal permanent residents, a group that includes many Asian immigrants. It would also eliminate within 10 years the current backlog of more than four million foreigners who applied through legal channels and have been waiting, in many cases for a decade or more, for green cards. Under those terms, foreigners who had been waiting the longest for family and employment green cards, including many Asians, could receive their visas quickly.
But the bill would also eliminate categories of green cards for siblings of United States citizens and for married sons or daughters of citizens who are over 30 years old. Many Asian immigrants have applied through those categories, and Asian-American groups opposed those provisions.
The young man at the immigration event was not the only one asking Mr. Obama to make changes unilaterally. At the first of two events for Democratic Party contributors in San Francisco, a man repeatedly yelled "executive order" as the president discussed impediments to his agenda.
Julia Preston contributed reporting from New Orleans.
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