President Obama will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday to lay out a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform and attempt to restart the debate on an issue he spoke passionately about as a candidate but has made little headway on during his presidency.
In a speech in El Paso, Texas, Obama will make the case that his administration has made significant progress on border security over the last two years, answering comprehensive reform opponents' preliminary objections to tackling reform legislatively.
The Obama administration has doubled the number of patrol agents along the border and deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year—facts that the president will argue underscore that the conditions are right for a serious debate on overhauling the nation's immigration policy, administration officials said. The president will also argue that current immigration laws are keeping innovative thinkers and skilled workers from contributing to the U.S. economy.
To be sure, passing any legislation in a divided Congress faces long odds. But by simply putting the issue on the front burner, Obama's effort could help energize a constituency that will be key to the president's reelection efforts.
"There's a political consequence and what he says will go a long way in promoting enthusiasm among Hispanic voters," Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Tex., chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told National Journal.
As a candidate, Obama spoke passionately about immigration reform, intoning a moral imperative to bring an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States "out of the shadows.
Addressing the issue now could have a direct impact on the president's survival at the polls in 2012. Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008, but he has been hammered by CHC members for giving immigration reform short shrift after promising on the campaign trail that he would make passing immigration reform a central part of his agenda during the first year of his presidency. CHC members have also criticized the administration for setting a new record in 2010 with 392,000 deportations.
Obama did back the Dream Act, legislation that would offer some young illegal immigrants a path to legal residency by going to college or serving the U.S. military, but an attempt to pass the legislation was blocked in Senate during the lame-duck session.
Last week, members of the CHC pressed Obama to use administrative powers to prevent deportation of illegal immigrants that would have been protected under the Dream Act, but Obama seemed hesitant to act unilaterally and told lawmakers that immigration needed to be fixed through legislation.
Hispanic groups are reminding the president that they played a large part in helping him win in 2008, and could play the difference in many battleground states in his reelection effort.
Hispanic groups are reminding the president that they played a large part in helping him win in 2008, and could play the difference in many battleground states in his reelection effort.
Obama won in 2008 despite notching just 43 percent of the white vote. With the economy foundering he could find it difficult to reach even that modest vote tally in 2012. But thanks to minority population growth in key states he won in 2008—including Florida, Nevada, and Virginia—he could still pull out victory with an even smaller segment of white voters, according to a National Journal analysis.
More than any group, Hispanics are driving the country's minority growth. One in six Americans, or about 50.5 million, is Hispanic, according to the 2010 census. That's up from one in eight, or 35.3 million, in 2000.
In his speech, Obama will try to reframe immigration reform as an economic and law-and-order issue. Administration officials said that they would also draw members of the faith-based community and business leaders into the conversation, an effort that they hope could help draw Republicans into the discussion. The White House is in the process of arranging 30 community conversations to raise the issue's profile.
"This a broken system that cannot be fixed unless Congress acts, so we do not accept the argument that since there are some in Congress that are unwilling to act that we ought to wash our hands of trying to get this done," a senior administration official said. "The president is leaning in and asking others to lean in with him."
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