Immigration

[The Boston bombings] complicate an already complicated upcoming debate. Some people will use it as an issue to try to derail [immigration reform]. The bottom line is that there are a lot of people that want to do harm to this country. Some of them come from abroad, some of them live here and some of them have lived here for a while. It may or may not impede immigration reform, but at this point I think it’s important to be very careful not to conflate the issues.

The political conditions have been the best in a number of years to actually pass comprehensive [immigration] reform but the Boston events already are emboldening critics ... It's going to slow down the process and in D.C. anytime you slow down the process it creates openings for critics to try to torpedo the overall legislation.

The question is, can we come up with a mechanism [for immigration] that allows us to have a more adjustable system over time and have more flexibility?