This could be the best example of someone that he can’t see the forest through the trees. It took President Barak Obama six years to announce his decision to do something relevant in favor of the immigrant community. In response to the extremist caucus of the G.O.P. in the House of Representatives refusing to even discuss the much-needed changes to the immigration laws, the President offered to bring some relief to millions of people without documents. “By the end of the summer” he would make it official, he said on June 30.
But less than 2 months later he had broken his promise. The announcement, he said, will happen after this November’s mid-term elections. Of course he had his reasons: despite a wide public opinion support to any common sense repair of the obsolete current immigration system, there were some worries that few states with low Latino presence –Alaska, Arkansas and a couple more–, some Republican candidates could use Obama’s Executive reform as an excuse to mobilize their anti-immigrants, anti-Latino and even pro-racism followers to the voting polls.
That was the logic behind the President determination to move backwards. In order to rescue a couple of trees he did not care about the whole forest. It should be noted that the political game itself is twisted trough its electoral district mapping that favors the status quo candidates and also that the Latino presence and vote is heavily concentrated in the East and West Coast and therefore in many districts of red America their political muscle is weak.
Said that, the real thing is that Latino vote is more important than ever. The more than 9 million Latinos that helped to re-elect Obama in 2012 will be even more influential in the 2016 presidential election. And from that, their electoral presence will only increase. With over 1 million Latinos getting their 18th birthday every year –a solid trend for the next two decades– they are already in the path of becoming one third of America’s demography by the middle of this century.
So, the question should be natural: Is Obama dumb? Well, here is when this former community organizer (his most significant professional experience before becoming a professional politician) comes into hand. Obama’s cynicism may suggest that a couple of months delay won’t hurt too much his relation with the Latino community. He already had failed to his compromise of getting an immigration reform in 2009. In fact he and his Administration has the record of more immigrants deported in American history. And after all that, Latinos love his Executive Order to offer temporary relief to more than half a million young immigrants.
The big picture shows that historically most Latinos vote for democratic candidates. And, even more pragmatic: will they dare to vote republican?
Here is the golden lesson for the many activists that for many years have fought for an immigration reform: Playing with only one party will make their cause potentially hostage of the classic political games in Washington’s board. Obama –as many times proved when he was state senator and senator for Illinois, is just another politician. Beside the need of keep demanding the President to deliver what he promised, Latinos should keep fighting for a complete legislative reform and make their voices heard within the adult wing of the G.O.P.
After all, Ronald Reagan, a Republican President, delivered the previous immigration reform.
