When asked at the microphone of popular radio host Eddie Sotelo about his incapacity to influence the adoption of the immigration reform promised during his 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Obama emphasized that his “presidency is not over.”
“I’ve got another five years coming up. We’re going to get this done,” he affirmed during the interview, recorded Tuesday for a Thursday broadcast.
Mr. Obama, who was elected in 2008, is in the last year of his term of office and will pursue a new four-year tenure in the White House next November.
The immigration reforms that Mr. Obama championed failed in Congress during his first two years in office.
The DREAM Act, a law that would have permitted people who arrived in the U.S. illegally during their childhood access to American citizenship, under certain conditions, was blocked by the Senate in December 2010, after the bill was adopted by the House of Representatives.
Mr. Obama’s victory in 2008 was particularly attributed to the mobilization of minorities in his favor. Two thirds of Hispanics, the fastest growing community in the United States, voted for Obama.
Aware that the failure of immigration reform could cost him in November, Mr. Obama and the Democrats have raised the call to the Hispanic community and attempted to shift the responsibility for this failure onto the Republicans.
Referencing the Republican-dominated Congress in statements concerning immigration reform, Obama pleaded “I would only have broken my promise if I hadn’t tried. But ultimately, I’m one man. You know, we live in a democracy. We don’t live in a monarchy. I’m not the king. I’m the president. And so, I can only implement those laws that are passed through Congress.”
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