Latino leaders pressure Obama over deportations

President Obama is facing heated criticism from Latino leaders and opinion-makers over his administration's aggressive use of deportation as a tool of immigration enforcement. But Obama appears to be fully committed to maintaining a policy that has achieved a record level of deportations, telling a town hall last week it would not be "appropriate" for him to intervene to slow down pending deportation proceedings.

Dozens of grassroots immigrant rights groups are starting a campaign called "Change Takes Courage" to prod Obama to rethink his position and stop the deportation of immigrants who entered illegally or who have expired visas but have committed no other crime. (To enter the country illegally is a misdemeanor, but overstaying a visa is not a criminal offense.)

The coalition says that Obama should defer deportation orders for young students whose parents brought them into the United States as children and would have been legalized by the DREAM Act if they joined the military or graduated college. The DREAM Act legislation failed in the Senate in December, with Republican lawmakers arguing that it amounted to "amnesty" and would encourage illegal immigration.

Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois--one of the most visible Latino leaders, according to one poll--is part of the campaign, and is launching a 20-city tour to raise awareness about the rise in deportations and encourage Latinos to pressure politicians to enact immigration reform. "Wherever I go, people say to me, 'Luis, when's he going to keep his promise?' " Gutierrez said of Obama at one such meeting, according to The Boston Globe.

But Obama was adamant in a town hall meeting televised by Univision last Tuesday that he could not stop deportations by executive order.

"With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case," Obama said to Karen Maldonado, a young illegal immigrant who was brought to the country as a child and has received a deportation order. She asked the president why his administration was seeking to deport the young immigrant students his DREAM Act hoped to legalize.

"There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president," Obama added.

Syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote that Obama is engaging in "double talk" and a "phony immigration two-step." Navarrette says Obama blames Republicans for being too tough on immigration, while his own administration escalates deportations.

It's unclear if the Obama strategy is working. According to a recent Latino Decisions poll, 70 percent of Latinos approve of Obama, but only 43 percent say they plan to vote for him in 2012. Obama captured 67 percent of the Latino vote in 2008, after promising to get immigration reform done--including a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who paid a fine and had no criminal record--within the first year of his Oval Office tenure.

The most recent U.S. Census shows that Latinos are the largest minority group in America, and a Pew Hispanic Center poll shows 85 percent of Hispanics backing comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.

(Gutierrez announcing his 20-city tour: AP)