Obama Attempts To Redeem Himself with the US Latino Community

The president promises to reduce deportations following the election and turn the need for immigration reform into a campaign issue.

Gelin Alfaro is 15 years old; she has spent 12 of these years in the U.S. Her Spanish, more than the Mexican accent from her country of origin, indicates that she feels more comfortable speaking English than her parents’ language. She hopes to benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program approved by President Barack Obama shortly before the 2012 election, in which he won re-election. But her father is being deported, while her mother remains “in the shadows,” as they say of undocumented immigrants in the United States, awaiting the promised presidential decree that will alleviate her situation. But the decree will not come.

As a result, Gelin joined the protest on Thursday night with various activists outside the Washington Convention Center, where they awaited the president’s arrival to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute awards gala, where he was the guest of honor.

The teenager carried a sign with a clear demand: “Obama, be a man, keep your promise,” in reference to his actions in June, when he said that in the face of inaction in Congress, he would use his executive power to alleviate the situation of undocumented immigrants “before the end of the summer.” September came around and Obama, under pressure from various Democratic senators fearing the loss of their seat in the November midterm election — which would leave the president’s party without a majority in the Senate — announced that he would take no action until after the election. This led pro-immigration activists and Latino communities to call his decision a “betrayal.”

Thursday’s gala was the first time that the president could directly address the Latino community since delaying any executive action to alleviate the record deportation of his term in office — 438,421 in 2013, almost 20,000 more than before. There was an anxious and tense air to the expectation of what the head of state might say or even promise.

Bob Menéndez, Democratic senator and ally to the White House regarding immigration, made it clear to Obama that the Latino community “needs your help, Mr. President,” and that he awaits executive action that is “big, bold and unapologetic” — and, most importantly, “as soon as possible.”

In previous addresses to the same forum, which he visited for the first time in 2008 when he was still a candidate and immigration reform in the first year of his term in office was a campaign promise, Obama was always able to get enthusiastic applause.

Not this time. Yes, there was some applause, and after his speech, barely 15 minutes long, there were plenty of people who tried to approach him, to warmly greet him, and have a photo taken. The atmosphere, however, was noticeably colder than on previous occasions, with shorter, less enthusiastic applause.

The head of state was aware of the challenge of addressing a community that has been greatly disappointed by the lack of action on immigration, and dedicated a large portion of his speech to highlight his government’s achievements in economic recovery, education and health care, and also recalled that “millions” of Latinos had benefited.

But it was impossible to evade the subject in the minds of so many, and he did not delay in recognizing the “deep frustration” that he claimed to “share” at the lack of any immigration law that offers a legal solution to the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. “I am not going to give up this fight until it gets done,” he promised once again to the audience.

He had scarcely begun to speak about the prickly subject when a young activist, Blanca Hernández, who works in a law firm helping families threatened with deportation, interrupted him from the front rows of the hall to accuse him of breaking his promise of executive action. A visibly irritated Obama interrupted her to say “I am about to get to that.”

“I mean it,” continued Obama. Executive action — whose implementation he did not reveal — “is not a question of if, but when,” he added, and promised that it would take place before the end of the year.

Moreover, he assured that he would dedicate a large part of the month and a half that remains prior to the election to “explaining why immigration reform is good for the economy and good for everybody,” while also asking the Latino community not to stay at home on Nov. 4, but that they go out and vote; “Sí se puede, si votamos (Yes we can, if we vote),” he said, in somewhat shaky Spanish.

His words could not be heard outside the convention center, where Gelin Alfaro and other protesters continued to demand an end to deportation. The teenager said she felt “used” by the president. “He only uses us when he needs us, but in the end he throws us aside, ignores us and does not want to help us,” she complained. Next to her, Lindolfo Carballo, coordinator of the Hispanic organization Casa en Virginia, also shook her head. “When you lie twice in a row, it’s hard to believe you the third time. That is what is happening in our community here in the U.S. with the promises made by Obama.”

The U.S. deported more than 430,000 undocumented immigrants in 2013.

“If you really want to show that the community matters to you, show us with action,” Hernández, the activist who had interrupted the head of state agreed, upon joining the crowd outside the convention center.

*Editor’s note: Only the Obama and Menendez quotes have been verified.