WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser Wednesday that immigration reform still has a chance despite Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary loss to tea party challenger Dave Brat.
Cantor, a proponent of providing a path to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, was considered a critical supporter of immigration reform legislation. Brat consistently attacked Cantor for promoting amnesty for undocumented immigrants during his campaign.
Obama said that although some politicians and analysts are pessimistic about the future of immigration, all is not lost.
"It's interesting to listen to the pundits and the analysts and some conventional wisdom talks about how the politics of immigration reform seem impossible now," said Obama. "I fundamentally reject that and I will tell the speaker of the House he needs to reject it."
The president said he will keep pressuring Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, to schedule a vote on the Senate immigration bill passed in 2013.
"My argument about yesterday's election is not that there was too little politics, it's that there was too little conviction about what's right," Obama told guests at the fundraiser. "We need to get immigration reform done."
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