By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a re-election campaign looming, President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to overhaul the immigration system, but lawmakers seems to have little appetite to take on the issue.

In recent speeches at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, and the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama said his administration has followed through on demands to secure the border, and now it's time for Congress to put revamping immigration back on the agenda and make something happen.

"Comprehensive immigration reform is not only an economic imperative or a security imperative, it is also a moral imperative," Obama told the prayer breakfast.

But Republicans say any effort to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country or any effort that doesn't address the inadequacies they see in border security is doomed to fail.

Although legislation has yet to be introduced, many lawmakers agree the most likely first step toward immigration legislation is a requirement that all businesses use E-Verify. The E-Verify program lets businesses know whether employees have the necessary papers to work in the United States.S. Such legislation could give Democrats political cover by addressing immigration requirements that preclude tough crackdowns on immigrants. It also would give Republicans an opportunity to say they provided a new enforcement tool to stop illegal immigration.

The president's recent push, which started in April with a White House meeting on immigration issues and other events involving Latino celebrities, prompted Senate Democrats this month to reintroduce the DREAM Act. The bill would give a path to legal status for law-abiding young people who were brought into the United States without documents as children and who either plan to attend college or join the military.

"Our immigration laws prevent thousands of young people from fully contributing to our nation's future," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement announcing the bill he drafted. "These are honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists and valedictorians. These children are tomorrow's doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, soldiers and senators, and we should give them the opportunity to reach their full potential."

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has introduced a similar bill in the House.

Republicans, who control the House, insist the DREAM Act will never pass.

"It's amnesty for up to 2 million people," said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has some jurisdiction over immigration legislation. "I just don't see it when you are still talking about amnesty."

Smith said the bill rewards the undocumented parents and is "an open invitation to fraud."