VOA标准英语2013--Washington Week: Obama Trip to Mexico Keeps Focus on Immigration Reform

（单词翻译）

Washington Week: Obama Trip to Mexico Keeps Focus on Immigration Reform

President Obama had hoped to go to Mexico touting¹ new gun-control laws that would impede² the flow of American firearms to Mexico’s notoriously vicious drug cartels.  The drug war has claimed thousands of lives in Mexico in recent years, but Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to continue the fight.

“We will not abandon the fight against drug trafficking, drug production.  Mexico’s government, my government, will continue to face these types of crimes," he said. 

Gun reform stalled in Congress, but another issue of great importance to Mexico is very much alive: U.S. immigration reform.  Many of the 11-million undocumented immigrants in the United States were born in Mexico.  

Overhauling³ America’s immigration system is a priority for President Obama, as he made clear in his second inaugural⁴ address.

“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted⁵ in our workforce⁶ rather than expelled from our country," he said. 

Immigration reform would be welcomed by Mexico’s leaders, and by human-rights advocates like Andrea Gonzalez.

“The reality is that migrants live there [the United States] and support the country through their hard work, their labors⁷, the things they buy and the taxes they pay," she said. 

A bipartisan immigration reform bill was unveiled in the Senate earlier this month.  Although Congress is in recess⁸, this week could prove pivotal in building legislative⁹ support for the proposal.  

Lawmakers will be in their home states meeting with constituents¹⁰.  Voters’ strong support or fierce opposition¹¹ to immigration reform could sway members of Congress for or against the bill when they return to work next week.