The Senate, where Democrats are in the majority, passed a bipartisan reform bill in June, but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has made no progress on the issue.
"Democratic leaders have introduced a bill in the House that is similar to the bipartisan Senate bill," Obama said. "So now it's up to Republicans in the House to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not."
Noting that many in the GOP agree on the "need to fix our broken immigration system," the president urged House Republicans with different ideas on reform to speak up.
"I'll be listening," Obama said.
"But what we can't do is just sweep the problem under the rug one more time, leave it for somebody else to solve sometime in the future," he added.
The Senate bill includes extra money for border security and a path to legalisation for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, while the president cited an economic study indicating that immigration reform would add $1.4 trillion to the US economy over 20 years.
"In fact, if there's a good reason not to pass this common-sense reform, I haven't heard it," Obama said.
Immigration reform has been pushed into the background in recent months by the Syrian crisis and the government shutdown/debt ceiling fight.
