奥巴马敦促美国国会下月提出移民法案

 　　WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday used the moment of a naturalization ceremony at the White House to push Congress to put forward the immigration reform legislation.

　　The president, who has just come back from a Middle East trip, hosted the naturalization ceremony for 28 new citizens, including 13 service members, at the White House, as the latest effort to press lawmakers on immigration overhaul¹, a top legislative² priority for his second term.

　　TIME TO FIX IT

　　"And like the millions who came before -- and like the 28 Americans who are here today -- they will bring with them new hopes and new dreams, new ideas and new optimism about our future. That will make us stronger. That's how we'll make sure that our best days are ahead of us and not behind us," said the president at the ceremony.

　　Obama said he expected the Congress' debate on an immigration bill to "begin next month" and he wanted to sign the bill into law "as soon as possible."

　　"After avoiding the problem for years, the time has come to fix it once and for all," said the president, "The time has come for a comprehensive, sensible immigration reform."

　　Obama also stressed that the legislation should include an earned citizenship³ to illegal immigrants currently living in the country, one of the hottest issue amid the country's debate on immigration overhaul.

　　"We know that real reform means providing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are currently living in the shadows -- a pathway that includes passing a background check and paying taxes and a penalty, and learning English and then, going to the back of the line behind everyone else who is trying to come here legally."

　　Obama vowed⁴ to push on immigration reforms during his re- election bid last year and won over majority of Latino voters over the past two presidential elections. There are estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, mostly Latinos, who have been, as the president said when unveiling his proposals in January, "woven into the fabric⁵ of our lives."

　　CHANCE OF DEBATE NEXT MONTH

　　Bipartisan groups in both the House and Senate are moving closer to finalize⁶ their separate immigration reform proposals.

　　The Senate group, dubbed⁷ "Gang of Eight", expect themselves to finalize their detailed⁸ package by the end of this month and bring it up when legislators return from a two-week Easter break.

　　The effort by the Senate group of eight has received more attention over the weeks. The group, including top-ranking Democrats⁹ and leading Republicans on immigration reform like veteran Senator John McCain and Hispanic Republican star Marco Rubio, announced their framework of principles to guide the immigration reform at the end of January. One day later, U.S. President Barack Obama officially unveiled his own proposals on immigration reform.

　　Both plans to overhaul the immigration system include giving an earned citizenship to illegal immigrants as well as awarding green cards to foreign young high-end workforce¹⁰.

　　The bipartisan House group has yet to share details of their proposals, but their work has gained support from leaders in both parties, particularly when the Republicans sent an encouraging signal.

　　Last week, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, who had never endorsed¹¹ the negotiation¹² previously¹³, voiced support for the group' s plan, calling it "a pretty responsible solution."

　　REPUBLICAN SOUL-SEARCHING

　　Obama's re-election and Republican challenger Mitt¹⁴ Romney's loss also sparked a period of soul searching among the fractured Republican party. The party is now struggling to revamp its brand and appeal to the country's minorities who have not been associated with it typically.

　　The U.S. demographic landscape is undergoing a major shift as the current minority communities continue to grow while the whites could become minority in next three decades, according to U.S. census¹⁵.

　　Hispanics, a fast-growing group in particular, is a huge target group that Democrats hope to secure and Republicans aspire¹⁶ to win back in future elections. Latino-Americans voted for Obama over Romney 71 percent to 27 percent in the 2012 presidential race.

　　Advocates for immigration reform now see a decent chance for legislation to pass Congress this year.

　　"Asian-Americans are the fastest growing population in the country and Hispanic-Americans make up the largest ethnic¹⁷ group of the non-white population. Immigration played an important role in the debate of the last general election and that has gotten the attention of Republican politicians who ignored the need for comprehensive immigration reform, but are now willing to consider passing the legislation," said Adrian Pedroza, executive director of Partnership¹⁸ for Community Action and member of the President's Advisory¹⁹ Commission on Educational Excellence²⁰ for Hispanics.

　　He told Xinhua that by allowing undocumented immigrants to earn a path to citizenship would help them to be "fully²¹ contributing members of this country."

　　About 63 percent of Americans agree that the immigration system should deal with immigrants who are currently living in the country by allowing them a way to become citizens, according to a survey released last Thursday by the Public Religion Research and the Brookings Institution.

　　However, a bad news for supporters of immigration reform is that among the seven issues with political priority for the White House and Congress, immigration only ranked sixth, far behind economic issues.

　　It remains²² to be seen whether the spring has sprung for a comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill.

1 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

2 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

3 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

4 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

5 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

6 finalize   

v.落实，定下来

参考例句：

• Let us finalize tonight.让我们今天晚上干完
• 。At the same time,industrial designers work with engineers to finalize components and assembly.同时，工业设计师和工程师一道来完成部件和组装部分的工作。

7 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

11 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

13 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

14 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

15 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

16 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。

17 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

18 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

19 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

20 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

21 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

22 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。