Obama Will Have a Meeting with Hispanics in California

The summit will reunite head-of-state Barack Obama with Latino leaders, with the intention of recovering the vote from this group after criticism of the great amount of deportations under the present administration.

The White House announced today a “conference” with leaders, businessmen and Hispanic officials at the University of California, Riverside, at a time of a decline in Barack Obama’s popularity among Latinos.

The “conference,” which will gather a dozen officials of President Obama’s administration with community leaders this Saturday and will follow similar forums in other regions of the country, will have on the agenda the economy, employment, access to health care and immigration reform.

Obama garnered 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 election, but a Gallup poll divulged last September shows that he is in the basement of his popularity among Latinos, with support at 48 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

Among the main criticisms of Obama from Hispanic organizations is not only the disappointment of the unkept promise to achieve immigration reform, but also the record level of deportations, the majority of which affect Hispanics.

The Obama administration deported a total of 396,906 immigrants during the 2011 fiscal year, which concluded on Sept. 30, the highest in the history of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

White House officials maintain that the majority of those deported are immigrants of high priority, with criminal backgrounds or removal orders, but activists question the disproportionate number of Latinos, as well as the definition of “criminal immigrants.”

The forum takes place at a time that groups like Presente.org have centered their criticisms on the secretary of international affairs at the White House, Cecilia Munoz, who they accuse of giving deceptive information about figures from security communities.

The White House has held similar forums in Denverr, Col., Las Cruces, N.M., New York, Las Vegas, Nev. and Orlando, Fla.; where the White House has invited business leaders, activists and stage personalities.