WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday told leaders of pro-immigrant, religious, union, business and police groups that they will push for immigration reform.

Napolitano met Thursday at the White House with 130 representatives of organizations from different sectors of society who are demanding that the U.S. president fulfill his election campaign promise and push for comprehensive immigration reform.

At the gathering, leaders from the Hispanic community asked the U.S. government for concrete action beginning this fall.

Obama attended the conclusion of the meeting, an occasion which he took advantage of to tell the participants that he understands that the country’s immigration system “doesn’t work and needs to be adjusted,” the White House spokesman for Hispanic affairs, Luis Miranda, said.

The president said that immigration reform will be one of his priorities, but he also acknowledged that it will be delayed.

During last week’s North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico, the president said he hoped that Congress will have a draft immigration bill ready by the end of the year and will put it to a vote in 2010.

He warned that the public will have to wait until Congress gets other things out of the way, however, especially health care reform.

The Thursday meeting was characterized by different members of the groups invited to it as a “good sign,” but they insisted that it is necessary for the government to move from rhetoric to action.

Frank Sharry, the founder and executive director of America’s Voice, asked Napolitano to be making public speeches about the need for reform “as you did when you were governor of Arizona” and to present a detailed proposal in Congress.

Sharry also asked “the president to continue talking about the need (for reform) ... as a priority.”

At the meeting, no time periods or concrete proposals were made, according to Claudine Karaski, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Meanwhile, Sharry said he was convinced that the only thing that “is going to push that question is the activism of the (Latino) community.”

Angelo Amador, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that the groups told Napolitano that “many things are not acceptable” and that instead tightening the law she should push for reform.

The participants were especially critical of the controversial E-Verify program, which demands that companies verify the immigration status of their employees, and the 287(g) program, under which local police departments are authorized to enforce immigration law.

Gabriel Gonzalez, director of campaigns for the Center for Community Change, said that the meeting “wasn’t bad” and added that “We have to see what they do, not just what they say.” EFE