White House focuses on immigration, guns

>>> in washington, the battles over guns and immigration reform are taking center stage this week, as president obama pushes his second term agenda. nbc's peter alexander is at the white house and has more on that. hi, peter.

>> reporter: lester, good evening to you. the president isn't wasting in i time in his second term, tackling two of his top priorities. specifically on immigration, one democratic senator said measures formerly off the table are now back up for discussion. barely a week into his second term, president obama is preparing to dive into the contentious issue of immigration, with a major speech set for las vegas tuesday. the president is expected to push for improving border security you expanding the system for employers to verify their workers a legal status and perhaps most controversially, creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants .

>> we can't go on forever with 11 million people living in this country in the shadows in an illegal status.

>> we are committed to a comprehensive approach to finally in this country have an immigration law that we can live with.

>> reporter: a bipartisan group of six seine stores planning to unveil its immigration reform proposals this week. last november, president obama won more than 70% of the latino vote, a new political reality forcing some republicans to reconsider their past opposition.

>> first of all, americans support it in poll after poll. secondly, latino voters expect t third, the democrats want it and fourth, republicans need it.

>> reporter: senator marco rubio in a nevada newspaper today insisted illegal immigrants must earn their new citizenship. we can't round up millions of people and deport them but we also can't fix our broken immigration system if we provide incentives for people to come here illegally. also front and center, the battle over guns. president obama telling the new "republic" magazine that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes. asked if he has ever fired a gun, mr. obama said, up at camp david we do skeet shooting all the time, like jfk used to years ago. on "meet the press," former vice presidential candidate paul ryan referred to last month's newtown tragedy as a watershed moment.

>> it's our worst nightmare, something like this happening. let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper. what's our policy on mental illness? what's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing?

>> reporter: and for its part, congress will hold its first hearing on gun violence , lester, this wednesday. one other note, by the way, about the president's interview with the new "republic," one one week before the super bowl , the president weighing in on football, if he had a son, we have to think long and hard before letting him play to the game, referring to the violence in the sport.

>> peter, thank you.