Obama to Romney: The Latino Vote Is Mine!

After a bad slump in his re-election campaign, Barack Obama has changed tack and begun to work hard for Latino voters, who could decide the 2012 presidential race in many American swing states. His first term was polluted by his failure to make good on his election promise of a big federal law on immigration and the radical initiatives taken by border states in direct contact with the reality of immigration, primarily from Mexico, such as Arizona. For several months Hispanic students in American universities have lived under a cloud of a possible expulsion and the Latino voters grumbled, putting Obama’s re-election in peril. Romney must have appreciated that.

Who is affected?

Nearly 1 million young illegal immigrants between the ages of 16 and 30 — who have lived for at least five years in the U.S., are students and have no criminal record. Arriving with their parents, they are “undocumented” and may neither work legally nor obtain a driver’s license. Obama defined them thusly: “They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds … in every single way but one: on paper.”

Are they completely out of the woods?

No, and that will be a problem in the future. Today’s version of the Dream Act doesn’t guarantee them permanent legal status; it only prohibits their removal from the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security. They will be protected for two years and then must renew their license. No amnesty, no path to citizenship.

Why did Obama make this decision without Congress’ approval?

All his attempts to pass the Dream Act were crushed by the Senate back in November 2010. Obama needs the Latino vote for 2012. And Latino voters and elected Democrats are angry. Obama is the president who, during his first term, drove out the largest number of illegal immigrants since the 1950s — about 1.1 million individuals. Bad form for a Democrat.

What are the Republicans going to do?

Oppose it. Try to slow the enactment of the measure taken by the president. Attack the White House on grounds of illegality. We should soon hear from Mitt Romney. As the Pew Hispanic Center noted, the act would affect 1.4 million immigrants, of whom the vast majority are Latino — 70 percent are born in Mexico — and many of whom live in Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico, which are important swing states.