Americas

Many Chicagoans who call 911 will no longer receive immediate help. Chicago police will no longer show up at crime scenes unless someone is in critical condition or a criminal suspect remains on the scene.

It may soon take bullet wounds, broken bones, rape attacks or other injuries to catch the attention of the police department, while crimes like car thefts may largely be overlooked.

Chicagoans who report property damage, vehicle thefts, garage burglaries or other crimes in which the perpetrator is no longer on the scene will not be assisted until the police have time, thereby freeing up officers for patrol duties but also leaving distraught victims in the dark.

Starting Sunday, about 44 officers will be freed up each day and will no longer be dispatched for certain crimes. Instead, the officers will spend their time patrolling the streets and searching for crimes elsewhere. The Chicago Police Department believes it does not need to report to scenes where the victim is “safe, secure and not in need of medical attention” and the offender is “not on the scene and not expected to return immediately.”

But some Chicago residents are angry about the new response plan, arguing that the taxes they pay for police should be used to help them when they are in need.

“I think that’s ridiculous. I think if there’s a burglary, they’ve got to come. It’s what we pay for. They have to come,” said Carmen Curio, who told CBS that she lives nearby a house that burglars broke into on Christmas Day.

Ald. Nick Sposato, a Northwest Chicago resident, said he pays high enough property taxes to deserve police assistance after a traumatizing break-in.

“People are upset; they want to talk to a police officer. They want to know something is being done to prevent this in the future,” Sposato said.

In some cases, crime victims might also believe the perpetrator has left the scene when the suspect is actually still at large. And even if a victim was not physically injured, they may have experienced emotional trauma that needs to be addressed. With police failing to show up, Chicago residents can no longer be guaranteed the care that law enforcement exists to ensure.

Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he is aware of this, but continues to believe that police are more useful on the street than responding to 911 calls.

“You’re upset; you’re violated. It’s happened to me. So, you’ve got to weigh it, and I’m making tough decisions,” he said. “I’m making a tough decision, but I’d rather have that officer on the street, doing something to prevent the next shooting than – honestly – making somebody feel better, because they’re responding rather than talking to them over the phone.”

McCarthy claims he was a victim of a burglary “three or four times”, but changed the response plan because of the city’s financial distress.

The Alternate Response Unit will draw up police reports on the phone and send evidence technicians to crime scenes later on, if documentation is necessary. Last year, about 74,000 such case reports were processed. But about 151,000 are expected to be processed this year – more than doubling the number of cases that the Chicago Police Department does not have time to attend to in person.

In 2012, 911 callers had the option to have an officer come to their location and file a report in person – but that choice will no longer be available to them unless they are injured or in the presence of a crime suspect.

The Chicago Police Department is in fact dealing with an overwhelming number of gun violence incidents, with its 513 homicides last year reaching a four-year high. Last month’s 42 homicides were the most January murders Chicago has experienced since 2002, and the city is on the pace for more than 700 murders this year.

But while gun violence does indeed need more attention than non-violent crimes, local residents continue to be distraught about the prospect of being overlooked when they call 911. With too much crime and too few police officers, the city is in a financially tough situation when it comes to fighting crime.
 

At least 54 countries including Syria, Iran, Sweden, Iceland, and UK offered CIA “covert support” to detain, transport, interrogate and torture suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks, according to a new report.

­The 213-page report released by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), a New York-based human rights organization, documents wide-ranging international involvement in the American campaign against Al-Qaeda.

The report, titled Globalizing Torture, provides a detailed account of other countries covertly helping the US to run secret prisons, also known as ‘black sites’ on their territory and allowing the CIA to use national airports for refueling while transporting prisoners.

Countries listed in the report include many from the Middle East and Europe.

The OSJI identifies Syria and Iran as two participants of the CIA’s rendition program.

“Syria detained, interrogated, and tortured extraordinarily-rendered individuals. It was one of the ‘most common destinations for rendered suspects’,” states the report. “The CIA rendered at least nine individuals to Syria between December 2001 and October 2002.”

Syria also had detention facilities that were used by the CIA, where “detainees report incidents of torture involving a chair frame used to stretch the spine (the ‘German chair’) and beatings.”

Iran has helped CIA by handing over 15 individuals to Kabul, after the US invasion of Afghanistan, knowing that they would be placed under the US control.

In Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, Jordan, Afghanistan, Malawi and Morocco the existence of secret prisons and the use of torture are documented.

The report describes Egypt as “the country to which the greatest numbers of rendered suspects have been sent [by the US].” Many suspects held in Egypt described having been tortured.

Pakistan is said to have detained 672 alleged Al-Qaeda members and transferred 369 to Afghanistan and/or to Guantanamo Bay.

There are grave reports of torture documented in Morocco. Detainees described torture over several months. One individual, Binyam Mohamed, was transferred by the CIA to Morocco in July 2002, “where his interrogators broke his bones while beating him, sliced his genitals, poured hot liquid onto his penis while cutting it, and threatened him with rape, electrocution and death.”

The list also includes states such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Greece and Cyprus. All of the above secretly helped the CIA by granting the use of their airspace and airports for aircraft involved in rendition flights.

Canada is identified as going beyond that and providing the CIA with information about one of its nationals that led to his capture, detention and rendition to Syria.

European countries such as the UK, Sweden and Italy even helped to apprehend individuals, interrogate and transfer them.

Countries such as France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Russia are not listed at all.

Report locates ‘black sites’

­States such as Poland, Lithuania and Romania are accused of accommodating secret prisons on their territories.

Poland is said to have “hosted a secret CIA prison on its territory, assisted with the transfer of secretly detained individuals in and out of Poland, including to other secret detention sites, and permitted the use of its airspace and airports for such transfers,” according to the report.

A CIA-run prison was discovered in a small Polish remote village Stare Kiejkuty, which was operational from December 2002 to the fall of 2003. It was used to transport suspected Al-Qaeda members outside US territory to interrogate them without having to adhere to US law.

The Polish government began an investigation into the secret prison in 2008. It is the second country to have opened a criminal investigation into the matter, after Lithuania (though that case has since been closed).

A secret CIA prison in Romania was revealed by Human Rights Watch in November 2005. The report notes CIA planes ‘dropping off’ detainees and leaving.

“The CIA brokered ‘operating agreements’ with the Government…of Romania to hold ‘high value detainees’ on a secret detention facility on Romanian territory.”

Romanian authorities have denied any existence of a secret CIA prison.

In Lithuania the secret prison is said to have held “up to eight ‘high value detainees’ at the facility until late 2005.” The prison was located in Antaviliai, about 20km from the capital, Vilnius, and owned by Elite LLC, a former CIA front company.

Villagers living close to the site reported that “English-speaking construction workers brought shipping containers filled with building materials to the site, and built a large, two-story building without windows, ringed by a metal fence and security cameras.”

Report’s goals

­The OSJI argues that the US could not have carried out its covert operations without the support of other countries and those who helped the US should be held accountable.

"But responsibility for these violations does not end with the United States. Secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations, designed to be conducted outside the United States under cover of secrecy, could not have been implemented without the active participation of foreign governments. These governments too must be held accountable,” the report states.

In addition, the report identifies 136 people who were detained or transferred by the CIA and specifies when and where the prisoners were held, creating the largest list in existence today.

The goal of OSJI is to force US to end the rendition program, terminate all of its remaining secret prisons, and open a criminal investigation into human rights abuses.

Also, the report calls upon other countries to stop their covert support of CIA programs and to hold past participants responsible.

 

A federal prison guard was charged Tuesday with having an illegal affair with an inmate convicted in one of New York's most notorious police killings, later becoming pregnant with his child.

Nancy Gonzalez, 29, was arrested on charges she intentionally engaged in a sex act with Ronell Wilson while working the night shift at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She became pregnant in June, a few months into the affair, according to court papers. Gonzalez appeared in court Tuesday visibly pregnant and crying, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and was released on $150,000 bond.

"She's had a very tragic life," said her attorney, Anthony Rico. "She has long-term issues that affected her life and judgment."

Her family didn't comment as a swarm of photographers and television cameras surrounded them outside federal court. Gonzalez buried her head in Rico's shoulder while he spoke to reporters.

"These are very serious charges," he said, adding he wouldn't say whether Wilson pressured Gonzalez into the affair.

Gonzalez faces 15 years in prison if convicted.

Wilson, 30, was a young gang member on Staten Island when he was convicted in the point-blank shootings of undercover officers James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in a 2006 illegal gun sting gone awry. The officers were both shot in the back of the head. Wilson was sentenced to death, but the sentence was thrown out in 2010 by an appeals court based on prosecutorial error.

Wilson could still face death; a new jury will decide his fate. But the replay of the trial's penalty phase has been put off as Wilson's lawyers seek to convince a judge that he's ineligible for the death penalty because he's mentally disabled.

In November, a hearing was held on the claim, and a decision from Judge Nicholas Garaufis is pending, though it's unclear if and how Gonzalez's arrest will affect the motion.

Wilson was moved to solitary confinement in August while reports of the relationship were investigated.

According to court papers, Gonzalez was seen by other inmates going in and out of Wilson's cell starting in March, meeting him in a vacant activity room next to his cell when other inmates were supposed to be sleeping.

"I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child," Gonzalez said, according to court papers.

She said she "kind of got sucked into his world," and that she "felt like, well, why not give him a child as far as giving him some kind of hope."

She confessed her relationship with Wilson to a different boyfriend, another inmate who had been under her supervision at the federal prison but is now housed at a state facility. She said it was over with Wilson, and that she was worried she would get into trouble.

After she became pregnant, Wilson's mother made contact, requesting a sonogram photo, according to court papers. Gonzalez said she was worried about the calls because she feared authorities would catch her.

"I know what's to come. I know what is going to be said about me," she said, according to court papers. "How am I going to explain this to this little boy? Mommy was in the military ... Mommy was a C.O., Mommy got wrapped up ... And then the opposite end is with a person who took lives. So how do you explain that?"
 

Graduate student borrowers are defaulting on almost US$1 billion in federal loans that were given out to the poor. US colleges such as Yale, Penn State and George Washington are coming after them in the courts, suing for nonpayment.

­All three colleges have pursued lawsuits against students who defaulted on their Perkins loans. The exact number of lawsuits is not known, but just last year alone the University of Pennsylvania filed at least a dozen lawsuits over the Federal Perkins Loan, Bloomberg reported.

Colleges are suing to collect unpaid Perkins Loans, given out by individual colleges to students who demonstrate extreme financial hardship.

Colleges depend on repayment of money to finance the new Perkins loans and so when graduates fail to pay back the borrowed sum, the current students are put at risk of not receiving new loans.

Between June 2010 and 2011 students defaulted on $964 million in Perkins loans, 20 per cent more than five years ago, Bloomberg reports.

The result is that the colleges go after the students in courts to collect the money.

“If you borrow to go to school, it may not be just the government that ends up coming after you if you can’t pay,” attorney Deanne Loonin told Bloomberg. “We offer credit very easily.” If the student doesn’t benefit financially from the education, “the government or the school comes after them very aggressively.”

Borrowers with multiple debts often put aside paying back the Perkins loans because it has a lower interest rate than other private loans.

After graduating with a Perkins loan, students get a nine-month grace period and a 5 per cent per annum interest rate afterwards.

Perkins is given out to those from low-income families and “they may have the least ability to pay it back,” Associate Director of Student Financial Support for the University of California System Nancy Coolidge told Bloomberg.

As the cost of higher education continues to soar, more and more students are forced to take out loans, which increased US education debt to US$1 trillion.

The average size of student loan debt has also almost doubled from US$17,233 in 2005 to US$27,253 in 2012, according to a study released by FICO Labs.

The increased amount of debt is connected to the increased number of defaults on loans, Daily Free Press quotes the study as saying.

In addition, a poor economy and high unemployment make it very difficult for recent graduates to repay their loans.

Around 5.9 million people nationwide have fallen at least 12 months behind in their payments.

This number has grown by a third in the last five years, according to a State Higher Education Finance survey.

Many who can’t repay their loans feel they have no choice but to default. It’s a decision that can be disastrous – ruining a borrower’s credit and increasing the amount they owe.

In the meantime, President Barack Obama is working to expand education opportunities for working class families by increasing the Perkins fund from US$1 billion to US$8.5 billion and putting the Education Department in charge of the loans instead of the institutions.
 

A pack of masked and hooded gunmen broke into a beach bungalow on the outskirts of Acapulco and raped six women tourists after tying up a group of men with cell phone cables and bikini straps, officials said Tuesday.

Another woman, also in the rented home, was spared in the 2 a.m. Monday morning attack just east of the troubled Mexican resort city, where a spate of recent violence has tarnished the reputation of what was once a top spring break destination.

The victims -- Spanish nationals, ranging in age from 20 to 34 -- are now under the protection of Mexican authorities.

Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton condemned the attack during a Tuesday news conference and vowed to apprehend those responsible as world attention homed in on Pacific port city.

"It's a very delicate situation," he said. "We are going to have the full weight of the law against those responsible."

He called it regrettable, apologized for the gunmen's attack and said it would probably affect the image of Acapulco, which derives much of its revenue from tourism.

"We know that it's very unfortunate what has happened, but it happens anywhere in the world," said Walton.

The mayor later apologized for his comment, saying he "very much regrets the misinterpretation of his words, which were never meant to harm the victims, nor minimize the facts."

State prosecutor Martha Elba Garzon said her office would not reveal the names of the victims or anything related to the probe, but she vowed to uphold the "responsibility to provide security to tourists and our people."

Military checkpoints have since been set up in an effort to apprehend five men that authorities believe are responsible for the attacks. The men, they say, do not appear to be a part of organized crime.

Investigators have also cordoned off the area surrounding the bungalow, located in an open area with limited security in Playa Encantada, as they sift through evidence.

Acapulco, in the mountainous state of Guerrero on Mexico's Pacific coast, was thought of as a relatively safe city despite rampant violence in the surrounding region. But a recent uptick in drug-related killings has compounded fiscal troubles brought on by the global financial crisis in the once glamorous Hollywood haunt.

Its modern realities now stand in stark contrast to its older self as once a choice destination for America's elite.

In 1953, John F. Kennedy took his new wife, Jacqueline, there for their honeymoon. Years later, Frank Sinatra immortalized the Mexican port city in his 1958 album "Come Fly With Me." And Elizabeth Taylor tied the knot for the third time in Acapulco when she married producer Mike Todd.

But after a series of gruesome murders in Guerrero, American and British authorities have since issued travel warnings.

In recent years, the region's drug wars are thought to have impacted the city's tourism sector as rival cartels vie for control of drug routes originating in South America. It is not clear whether Monday's attack was drug-related.

And yet the port city has also shown signs of a rebound.

Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal is expected to play at the Acapulco Open later this month, and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim recently promised a series of new investment projects.

Hotel occupancy rates inside Acapulco now hover around 65%, according to the city's Municipal Tourism Board.

Image problem notwithstanding, Mexico has remained a top tourist destination for decades. It welcomed 20 million Americans in 2010, the latest year for which federal data is available.

The city of Acapulco also brought in roughly half a million tourists last year. Most of them were Mexicans, including residents from the capital and Cuernavaca who flocked to beaches a four-hour drive away.

But the U.S. State Department said resort city bars, including those in Acapulco, can be "havens for drug dealers and petty criminals."

The agency said "resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes."

Spain's Foreign Ministry also advised travelers that "while foreign tourists rarely are victims of kidnapping or extortion, they can be victims of assaults and robberies."

It said Guerrero "should especially be avoided," or travelers should proceed with "extreme caution."

An estimated 107,000 Spaniards live in Mexico. They reside mostly in the capital.
 

President Barack Obama plans to make his first visit to Israel as a US leader in the coming months, the White House said Tuesday.

Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the prospect of a visit in a telephone call late last month, but the White House said that it was not ready yet to name a date or offer further details.

"When the president spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu on January 28, they discussed a visit by the president to Israel in the spring," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

"The start of the president's second term and the formation of a new Israeli government offer the opportunity to reaffirm the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Israel and to discuss the way forward on a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including Iran and Syria.

"Additional details about the trip -- including the dates of travel -- will be released at a later time." Israeli media earlier reported that the visit would begin in March 20.

West Bank visit also on the agenda
Obama will also stop in the West Bank and Jordan on his trip to the Middle East, the White House said.
Officials who had earlier disclosed Obama would visit Israel this Spring have later confirmed that the trip would also involve travel to Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 60 students forced to withdraw from elite college after cheating on last year's final exam, university says.

About 60 students have been forced to withdraw from Harvard University after cheating on a final exam last year in an "unprecedented" academic scandal at the prestigious school.

Harvard University said on Friday that the students were forced to withdraw from school for a period of time for cheating in a final exam in a class on Congress.

Roughly 125 undergraduates were involved in the scandal, which came to light at the end of the spring semester after a professor noticed similarities on a take-home exam that showed students worked together, even though they were instructed to work alone.

In a campus-wide email on Friday, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D Smith said the school's academic integrity board had resolved all the cases related to the cheating probe.

He said "somewhat more than half" of the cases involved students who had to withdraw from the college for a period of time.

Athletes implicated

Harvard said the length of a student's withdrawal period is usually from two to four terms.

Of the cases left, about half of the students got disciplinary probation. The rest were not disciplined.

Some athletes at the Ivy League school became ensnared, including two basketball team co-captains whom the school scratched from its team roster in the wake of the cheating investigation.

Past reports in The Harvard Crimson also linked football, baseball and hockey players to the scandal.

Smith's said in Friday's email that the school would not discuss specific student cases. A school spokesman, citing student privacy, also would not say if any athletes had withdrawn or say which teams might have been affected.

The dean called the scale of the cheating incident "unprecedented" and said reforms were being drawn up to "promote academic integrity and a deeper understanding of it within our community.

"This is a time for communal reflection and action," he wrote. "We are responsible for creating the community in which our students study and we all thrive as scholars."

Harvard, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the most exclusive universities in the world, with students paying about $63,000 a year to attend after winning a place in a highly competitive admissions process.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White House has released a photo of US President Barack Obama firing a shotgun, looking to put to rest scepticism over his recent comments to a US magazine that he went skeet shooting “all the time".

The photo, which was published on the White House’s official Flickr account on Friday, shows the president skeet shooting at a range at his Camp David residence.

In an interview with the New Republic magazine last month, Obama showed sympathy for hunters as he pushed for tighter gun controls after 26 people were killed at a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut last December.

Obama's aides were in the awkward position of standing by his comments while resisting reporters' demands for proof that he was indeed a regular on the shooting range at the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains.

The White House finally weighed in with a photo of Obama skeet shooting on August 4, 2012.  

"For all the 'skeeters'," Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in a Twitter message linked to the photo, which showed the president - wearing sunglasses, jeans and noise mufflers on his ears - firing a shotgun with smoke spraying from the barrel.

‘Profound respect’

When the New Republic asked Obama last month if he has ever fired a weapon, Obama responded, "Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," Obama said.

"The whole family?" he was asked.

"Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there... and I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake."

Obama's comment was widely seen as an attempt to reach out to gun owners to ease their concerns about his legislative proposals, the biggest gun control push in decades. He will travel to Minnesota on Monday to speak on gun control.

The National Rifle Association, which has rejected Obama's gun control proposals, scoffed at the photo.

“One picture does not erase a lifetime of supporting every gun ban and every gun-control scheme imaginable,'' said Andrew Arulanandam, the influential gun rights lobbying group's spokesman.

The NRA opposes Obama's call for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and says requiring background checks for all gun purchases would be ineffective because the administration is not doing enough to enforce existing gun laws.
 

Considering numerous documents there can be no doubt that an individual known as Joseph Ametrano is clearly a suspicious person of interest, or a suspect if you will, and a willing accomplice to, the very strange Sandy Hook massacre.

Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday that the United States remains very concerned about the future of women in Afghanistan as US troops prepare to leave the country, AFP reports.

The American chain restaurant Applebee’s has fired a waitress who posted a note on the Internet from a pastor that refused to tip her, which said “I give God 10%, why do you get 18?”

The waitress posted the receipt on the social news and entertainment website Reddit, where it quickly went viral in the atheist section of the site.

“My mistake sir, I’m sure Jesus will pay for my rent and groceries,” the waitress, Chelsea Welch, wrote in the headline of her post. The Applebee’s receipt indicated that an 18 percent gratuity had been added to the check, since the dinner party included eight or more people.

But the angry customer scratched out the $6.29 top and wrote “0” instead, arguing that she should not tip the waitress more than she pays God.

“I originally posted the note as a lighthearted joke,” Welch told The Consumerist. “I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical. I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining.”

Welch said she did her best to conceal any identifying information and even gave an inaccurate description of the pastor. The picture she posted did not include the pastor’s name or the restaurant’s information and the signature at the bottom of the receipt did not appear to be legible. But due to the popularity of the post on Reddit, which acquired more than 4,000 comments in just three days, Internet users quickly worked to determine the identity of the pastor.

By the time Welch posted a version of the receipt that did not contain a signature, it was too late to stop the flurry of attempts.

“I had already started receiving messages containing Facebook profile links and blogs and websites, asking me to confirm the identity of the customer,” she said. “I refused to confirm any of them, and all of them were incorrect. I worked with the website moderators to remove any personal information. I wanted to protect the identity of both my fellow server and the customer. I had no intention of starting a witch hunt or hurting anyone – I just wanted to share a picture I found interesting.”

But once the pastor, 37-year-old Alois Bell, caught wind of the viral receipt, she called Applebee’s and demanded that everyone – including the waitress and the managers – be fired. Shortly thereafter, Welch lost her job – despite allegedly being one of their most beloved waitresses.

“When I posted this, I didn’t represent Applebee’s in a bad light. In fact, I didn’t represent them at all. I did my best to protect the identity of all parties involved. I didn’t break any specific guidelines in the company handbook – I checked,” Welch said. “But because this person got embarrassed that their selfishness was made public, Applebee’s has made it clear that they would rather lose a dedicated employee than lose an angry customer. That’s a policy I can’t understand.”

When questioned by the New York Daily News, Applebee’s spokesman Dan Smith confirmed that an employee had been terminated, but declined to specify which one.

The Smoking Gun also tracked down the pastor, who said her note was a “lapse in my character and judgment” and that it “has been blown out of proportion.”

“My heart is really broken,” she said. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”
 

US president says "now is the time" for action on reform that will put illegal immigrants on path to citizenship.

"I can guarantee that I will put everything I have behind it," Obama said in an interview with Telemundo, one of two he conducted on Wednesday with Spanish-language television networks.

Obama said a deal should be attainable this year, but he wanted one even sooner. He said that politics, not technical issues, were standing in the way.

A group of Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, has agreed on a framework for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.

In the Republican-controlled House, another group of legislators was working on its own proposal.

Obama is promoting his own set of principles similar to those included in the Senate plan, but he has not been directly involved in the Senate's negotiations.

If Congress delays, he said, "I've got a bill drafted, we've got language" ready to offer Capitol Hill.

Obama offered his own principles on immigration at an appearance in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

He pushed for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is faster than the one the Senate group proposed.

Path to citizenship

Rather than emphasise border security first as the Senators want, he would let undocumented immigrants get on a path to citizenship if they undergo national security and criminal background checks, pay penalties, learn English and get behind those foreigners seeking to immigrate legally.

Asked by the Univision network about Republican criticism of his proposals, particularly from a Hispanic senator, Marco Rubio, Obama argued his administration had already done much work on securing the US border with Mexico.

"Look, we put border security ahead of a pathway to citizenship. We have done more on border security in the last four years than we have done in the previous 20," Obama said.

"We've actually done almost everything that Republicans asked to be done several years ago as a precondition to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform."

Obama offered to meet publicly or privately with Rubio and other Senators to try to move the process forward.

The border security issue may be the toughest the two sides will have to overcome to reach the type of comprehensive overhaul that Washington has talked about for years, but has been unable to execute.

After years on the back burner, immigration reform has suddenly looked possible as Republicans, chastened by Latino voters who rejected them in the November election, appear more willing to accept an overhaul.

Congress is not grappling with two major issues - immigration and Obama's efforts to tighten gun regulations.

The president told Univision he believed Congress could handle both at the same time.