Gutierrez: Health bill's immigration parts enough to vote against

The healthcare bill's immigration provisions are enough to spur Hispanic members of Congress to vote against it, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Thursday.

Gutierrez, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) in which he serves as chairman of its Immigration Task Force, said the caucus still has concerns over the extent to which the healthcare bill excludes illegal immigrants as well as legal residents from receiving benefits in the healthcare plan.

"They are enough to say I can't support this bill," Gutierrez said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Gutierrez and other members of the CHC to express concerns about the immigration provisions in the bill, about which they've begun to speak out more forcefully as a vote on healthcare approaches.

The Illinois congressman, who was an early supporter of President Barack Obama's run for the Oval Office, said that the immigration provisions were very unlike the president, and suggested someone in the White House had urged him to back more stringent provisions on immigration.

"I think someone at the White House might have told him that's a good way to leverage one thing or another," said Gutierrez, who declined to say who that person might be.