Mr. Obama differs with the blueprint offered by a bipartisan group of senators on some key issues, notably whether to make a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants conditional on further tightening the nation’s borders.

But administration officials said Monday evening that the principles in the Senate proposal were largely consistent with those in Mr. Obama’s 29-page blueprint for immigration reform, which he issued in May 2011 and made a plank of his re-election campaign.

A major point of difference between the Presidents proposal and that from the Senate group is the inclusion of a "Keeping Families Together" principle.

Administration officials said that in contrast with the Senate framework, the president will call for immigration benefits to be extended to same-sex couples when one person is an American.

It treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner. The proposal also revises current unlawful presence bars and provides broader discretion to waive bars in cases of hardship.

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin responded to the Presidents proposal by saying: "Every day, thousands of bi-national same-sex couples are confronted with the uncertainty of immigration laws that treat them as strangers. They face the impossible dilemma of having to choose between love and country."

The inclusion of same-sex families is the first time that the President has included lgbt families on par with the opposite gendered families that are recognized in current immigration law.

This provision is certain to raise opposition from the anti-equality House and Senate members in the Congress and would clash with the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) until that anti-family law is either repealed and/or overturned by the Supreme Court Of The United States(SCOTUS) as unconstitutional.

With the senators pledging to pass a bill by this summer, the White House has shelved, for now, plans to introduce its own immigration bill, the officials said. Indeed, after two years of nearly constant feuding with Congress, Mr. Obama finds himself in rare alignment with Democratic and Republican lawmakers on a major issue.