Immigration Reform 2013: Obama To Keep Up Pressure On House In Speech [LIVE STREAM]

President Barack Obama will urge the House of Representatives to consider a comprehensive bill on immigration reform in remarks delivered in the White House East Room on Thursday morning. The Senate passed one such bill in June, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has refused to introduce it for consideration in the lower chamber, saying it was not popular among the majority of his party's members there. Instead, he and other GOP leaders in the House say they want to take a "piecemeal" approach to immigration reform through a series of small, single-issue bills. Scroll down to watch a live stream of Obama's remarks via the White House's web site when they air at 10:35am EST.

The White House says that in his speech, the president will "urge that Congress take up this issue in a bipartisan way." An official told members of the press on Wednesday, "Commonsense immigration is good for the country and it's the right thing to do. It will grow the economy, reduce the deficit, and has broad support from both democrats and republicans, business and labor, as well as law enforcement and faith leaders." The official added, "The President has made clear the key principles that must be a part of any bipartisan, commonsense effort, including continuing to strengthen border security, creating an earned path to citizenship, holding employers accountable, and bringing our immigration system into the 21st century."

The House's Republican leadership says they have no plans to conference the smaller immigration bills they've been crafting with the Senate's bill -- or any other comprehensive bill. Battles over the debt ceiling may have made GOP members even less willing to compromise with the president on the issue. One House Republican who has been a key player in that chamber on immigration, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), recently called the idea "crazy." But Obama has said he would be open to the "piecemeal" approach as long as the central tenets which he and the Democrats have sought -- especially a path to citizenship for the undocumented, which has questionable support among the GOP -- are included.

"I'm happy to let the House work its will as long as the bill that ends up on my desk speaks to the central issues that have to be resolved," he said in mid-September, listing more border enforcement, penalties for employers who take advantage of undocumented workers, and the pathway to citizenship as examples. "If those elements are contained in a bill, whether they come through the House a little bit at a time or they come in one fell swoop ... I'm less concerned about process, I'm more interested in making sure it gets done," he said.