Obama's immigration speech offers no new proposals
Standing near the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday, President Obama made his self-described "big policy speech" on immigration reform. But it didn't offer new proposals, didn't say legislation was coming and didn't explain how he would win over a skeptical GOP-led House.
If Obama's fourth immigration-related event in the past month was meant to appeal to the pivotal Latino voting bloc he needs to be re-elected, he should know that "Latino voters are very smart," said Gloria Montano Greene, Washington, D.C., director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
"A speech is not going to do it," she said. "They want to see action."
While Montano Greene nonetheless praised Obama for "keeping immigration in the forefront," others were skeptical that Tuesday's event was little more than a campaign stop. Obama did not vigorously push for immigration reform - a promise he made to Latino voters - even when Democrats had congressional majorities during his first two years.
A record 10 million Latinos voted in 2008 - two-thirds of them for Obama - out of more than 23 million registered Latino voters. Immigration reform topped the policy wish list of Latino voters in an April survey by impreMedia-Latino Decisions.
Obama's speech Tuesday in El Paso, Texas, was light on specifics but he attempted to reframe the immigration issue "as being about legalization" rather than the need to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, said Louis DeSipio, a professor of politics at UC Irvine and an expert on the Latino electorate.
Republican politicians in Congress and in states like California that share a border with Mexico often say they won't discuss immigration reform until the border is "secure." But few define what "secure" means.
On Tuesday, Obama ticked off how there are now twice as many border agents (20,700) as there were in 2004, and the government has seized more drugs, currency and weapons than before.
"Those who are here illegally have a responsibility as well," Obama said. "They have to admit that they broke the law, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. And they have to undergo background checks and a lengthy process before they can get in line for legalization."
Still, corralling GOP support will be tough.
"The American people simply aren't buying any claims that the border is secure from crime and violence, and they shouldn't," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.