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President Barack Obama called out Republicans in Congress for "holding hostage" funding for the Department of Homeland Security, while challenging Americans to change the political environment that has caused immigration reform to stall during a town hall meeting on Wednesday.

The agency in charge of implementing immigration policy, among other duties, is scheduled to run out of funding Friday if the GOP-controlled Congress can't agree to a funding bill.

"Instead of trying to hold hostage funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is so important for our national security, fund that and let's get on with actually passing comprehensive immigration reform," Obama said at the event, aired on Telemundo and MSNBC, and hosted by Jos Daz-Balart, an anchor on both channels.

The meeting was announced in the days following a ruling last week from a federal district court judge that temporarily blocked Obama's executive action on immigration. The White House said it was a chance for the president to reach the Hispanic community, taking questions from online and members of the audience.

During the event, the president called on voters to make immigration reform a successful social movement -- and a key issue in the next presidential election.

"Every major social movement, every bit of progress in this country, whether it's been the workers' rights movement or the civil rights movement or the women's rights movement, every single bit of that progress had required us to fight and to push and you make progress," Obama said. "You don't get everything right away, and then you push some more."

The president also defended the legality of his executive action, but said that passing comprehensive reform in Congress should be the end goal. When asked about the failure of Congress to pass legislation he laid the blame squarely on the GOP.

"You do a disservice when you suggest that no one was doing anything, then you don't know who was fighting for and against you," Obama said. "The Democratic Party has been consistent. A few Republicans have supported it but let's be clear -- the reason why we don't have a bill is because [House Speaker] John Boehner wouldn't call a vote."

Obama offered praise for 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.

"I appreciate Mr. Bush being concerned about immigration reform," he said. "I would suggest that what he do is talk to the speaker of the House and the members of his party."

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Obama calls out GOP on immigration policy

Comprehensive immigration reform must come sooner than later. If not for political gamesmanship, substantive immigration reform would have happened long ago.

Instead, the American public is left waiting for Washington do something while the functional legitimacy of immigration law continues to erode.

At a Feb. 10 Riverside County supervisors meeting, Riverside County supervisors John Benoit and Marion Ashley reiterated their support for immigration reform.

Unfortunately, our federal government has failed to move that issue, and its certainly one that needs to be addressed, said Mr. Benoit. I represent a part of the county that is dramatically impacted by the needs of good people who are here but are not legally here. Thats a problem for them and certainly a problem for our government also.

There are approximately 275,000 undocumented immigrants living in the Inland Empire, according to the Migration Policy Institute. An estimated 150,000 reside in Riverside County, nearly a third of whom live below the poverty line and most of whom are without health insurance.

We educate them. We ought to try to keep them and not let them go back to the countries and then theyre competing against us, said Mr. Ashley at the supervisors meeting.

In 2013, the county supervisors unanimously approved a resolution in support of an immigration reform bill being considered at the time. The resolution claimed that our broken national immigration system undermines our core national and local interests.

Further, the resolution argued that developing a comprehensive, functioning immigration system is essential to ensuring Americas future economic prosperity.

All of these concepts are important to keep in mind amidst ongoing national debate over what to do with the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

It is clear that undocumented immigrants broke the law to get here. It is also clear that our immigration policies have been poorly conceptualized and enforced.

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EDITORIAL: An immigration law eroded

Vartak has ineligible to work in the U.S. because she is on an H-4 visa. That changed today.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that select H-4 visa holders will be eligible for employment authorization.

It was part of President Obama's executive action on immigration in November, but has been part of a grassroots movement for much longer. It is the first reform to be implemented that's geared toward high-skilled immigrants.

The H-4 visa is given to spouses of those on an H-1B, as well as a handful of other, less common, visas. At present, H-4 visa holders can't earn an income or possess a social security number.

"It's a big win for the Indian community," said Shah Peerally, who heads up an immigration law firm in Newark, Calif. "A lot of people are going to be able to go on with their lives."

The State Department said 96,753 people received an H-4 in 2013, 76% of whom were from South Asia. (Indians also receive the majority of H-1B visas, with most working in science, tech and engineering, according to Neil Ruiz of the Brookings Institution.)

But Ruiz says it isn't just Indian women who have suffered -- the entire U.S. has been losing out because of this policy.

"In a world where everyone is competing, other countries like Canada are more competitive in giving both spouses and high-skilled workers authorization to work as soon as they arrive," he said.

The U.S. misses out on the taxes that these immigrants would contribute. Ruiz said because H-1B visa holders are high skilled, it's likely that their spouses are highly skilled as well.

The new rule requires H-4 holders (whose spouses have applied for green cards) to file an application for employment authorization and $380. The USCIS anticipates as many as 179,600 people might apply this year -- but it won't start accepting applications until May 26.

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Immigration reform: Is this the first step?

A poll of 40,000 people reveals that the areas of consensus are broader than many suspect.

On immigration reform, rhetoric has often been out of sync with public opinion. Despite roughly three-quarters of Americans supporting the goals behind President Obamas executive action on immigration, Obamas new immigration plan has run into repeated Republican roadblocks. Republican governors in 26 states are suing the Obama administration, claiming that the order exceeded Obamas authority. A Republican-appointed judge in Texas ruled in favor of the GOP governors and issued an injunction halting the policys implementation. Republican congressional leaders are pursuing a parallel track to block the implementation of the executive action. GOP lawmakers have set up a partisan showdown by attaching riders to the Department of Homeland Security funding bill that would defund Obamas executive action on immigration. That bill, or a continuing resolution, must pass this week in order for DHS to remain open.

Today, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released the American Values Atlas, an online interactive map that provides an unprecedented portrait of Americas changing religious and political landscape. The AVA was designed to harness the power of big datamore than 40,000 telephone interviewsin order to provide a lens for understanding public opinion at levels not typically possiblesuch as at the state and metro levelor among smaller subgroups of Americans whose voices cannot be discerned in typical surveys. The AVA includes two measures in the area of immigration, one focused on policy, and the other on how immigrants are perceived. And the results are revealing.

At the national level, the AVA finds solid support for a path to citizenship. When asked to identify the best approach for dealing with immigrants who are living in the country illegally, six in 10 Americans say there should be a way for such immigrants to become citizens provided they meet certain requirements, while 17 percent say they should be allowed to become permanent legal residents but not citizens, and 19 percent say they should be identified and deported. Similarly, Americans hold fairly positive assessments of the economic impact of immigrants, with 55 percent saying that immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents, while only 36 percent say that immigrants are a burden on the country because they take jobs, housing, and healthcare.

A quick look at the AVA state map reveals that there is a broad consensus across the country about immigration policy solutions. For example, majorities of the residents of all 50 states support a path to citizenship for qualified immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally. Support for a path to citizenship is fairly consistent across states, ranging from almost two-thirds in Delaware, Kansas, and Vermont, to just over half in Louisiana and Wyoming.

There is a broader span of opinion across states regarding the economic impact of immigrants. At one end, 52 percent of West Virginians and Mississippians say immigrants are a burden because they take jobs, housing, and health care. At the other end, only 26 percent of California residents say immigrants are a burden on the countrywhile two-thirds of state residents report that immigrants strengthen the U.S. because of their hard work and talents.

A couple of key patterns are evident here. First, it is notable that there are only 5 statesWest Virginia, Mississippi, Wyoming, Maine, and Alabamain which half or more of residents say immigrants are a burden on the country. Second, generally speaking, the states that tend to hold the most negative judgments about the economic impact of immigrants are not states that have historically had high levels of immigration. The reverse is also true. The four states in which residents hold the least concerns about immigrants being a burden are California, Hawaii, New Jersey, and New Yorkthe historic centers of immigration in the country.

Because of the AVAs large sample size, users are able to look at attitudes of demographic subgroups with an unprecedented degree of confidence. For example, the AVA demonstrates that the consensus across states on a path to citizenship largely holds across subgroups, including conservative subgroups. Majorities of Republicans (52 percent), white evangelical Protestants (54 percent), seniors (56 percent), and non-Hispanic whites (59 percent) all support a path to citizenship for immigrants currently living in the country illegally. Those numbers are based on interviews among random samples of over 9,400 Republicans, 7,900 white evangelical Protestants, 11,500 seniors, and 27,700 non-Hispanic white Americans.

This broad level of support is not always reflected in the polarized political debate, but not because of state-level differences. Residents of the 26 states bringing legal action against the Obama administration are only slightly more likely than average to say that immigrants are a burden on the country (39 percent vs. 36 percent respectively), and their support for a path to citizenship, at 59 percent, is statistically indistinguishable from the national average. These 26 states are set apart less by the views of their residents than the actions of their governors.

The pioneers of modern public opinion polling understood their craft as providing a vital democratic function in an increasingly fast-paced world. George Gallup promised that surveys would allow the American people to speak for themselves, and Elmo Roper referred to scientific surveys as democracys auxiliary ballot box. The immigration debate is a clear example of a terrain on which the pitched partisan battles waged by politicians have obscured the broad agreements of their constituents. If the public opinion data from the AVA can serve to remind our leadersand even ourselvesthat there is common ground available on an important issue like immigration, it has come close to realizing some of its civic and civilizing potential.

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What Americans Actually Think About Immigration

Updated: 02/25/2015 10:33 AM Created: 02/25/2015 9:07 AM WNYT.com By: Ben Amey

ALBANY - The immigration debate in Washington, D.C. is also of interest to farmers in New York. They use a lot of migrant labor. The president of the New York Farm Bureau is traveling from Albany to Washington Wednesday to talk to members of Congress.

Dean Norton, president of the New York Farm Bureau, says that immigration reform is the bureaus top legislative priority this year, the same as it was last year. The Farm Bureau supports a flexible visa plan for migrant workers, rather than a plan that supports amnesty or one that solely focuses on enforcement.

An article in the New York Times from a year ago quotes an American Farm Bureau study as saying if an enforcement-only policy was adopted, fruit production could drop up to 60 percent and food prices would increase 5 percent over the next five years.

Part of the flexible visa program would involve the replacement of the season visa to one that would let workers get a three-year visa to work on a farm. The New York Farm Bureau says that without a stable, legal workforce to help work on farms, it will become more difficult to provide food.

Other topics that the farm bureau will discuss with New Yorks congressional delegation include President Obamas immigration executive order, food safety, trade policy, and funding for federal school and local food programs.

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New York Farm Bureau pushes immigration reform