“It does not make sense to me, if we’re gonna make this once-in-a-generation effort to finally fix the system, to leave the status of 11 million people or so unresolved,” Obama said in an interview with a Telemundo-owned TV station in Denver.

Such a plan, he said, would run counter to American values.

“It’s not who we are as Americans,” Obama said, according to a transcript of the interview. “That’s never been our tradition.” …

“If you’ve eaten your dessert before you’ve eaten your meal, at least with my children, sometimes they don’t end up eating their vegetables,” Obama told a Telemundo-owned station in Dallas, according to the transcript. “We need to, I think, do this as a complete package.”