[Ed Morales] Obama’s immigration speech falls far short

President Obama’s recent speech in El Paso, Texas, addressing America’s broken immigration policy was very disappointing to immigrant advocates, the Latino community and anyone concerned about human rights.

He offered only a vague assessment of the issue, and ignored calls by leading Latino politicians, most notably Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, to use his executive powers to take decisive action to reform the system.

Obama seemed distracted and, at times, even flippant as he stated his case. He said that the issue was “complex,” even though there is nothing complicated about immigration policies that have resulted in increasing deportations ― or that have split up many families unjustly and arbitrarily.

He even hewed to the standard conservative position that undocumented immigrants have “cut in front of the line ... making a mockery of those who are trying to immigrate legally.” This line of rhetoric disregards how policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement have destabilized Mexico’s economy and thrown millions of people out of work, making immigration inevitable.

When he attempted to sing the praises of bolstering border security with the construction of a huge fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the initially sympathetic and largely Hispanic crowd turned hostile, booing at the mere mention of it.

One of the few ways he found to support immigration was to extol the virtues of highly skilled and educated workers and entrepreneurs who have helped create companies like Google, Yahoo and Intel. While these are impressive American success stories, the meat of the immigration issue surrounds the fate of millions of poorly skilled and less-educated workers from Mexico and Central America and their families.

While he acknowledged that there was a “human toll” taken by harsh laws that result in the deportation of “decent people” among hardworking immigrants, Obama vowed only to “keep up the fight to pass genuine, comprehensive reform.” It’s no secret that many immigrant advocates and Latino leaders feel that the Obama administration has not held up its end of the bargain to do this.

Both Gutierrez and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., have argued that Obama has executive power to order a “parole in place” or temporary legal status, and that he should use this power especially for the 1 million high school and college-age students who were brought into the country illegally by their parents. Obama seemed to answer this plea by saying he wished he could bypass Congress and change the law himself, but “that’s not how a democracy works.” In fact, this executive power is routinely used for Cuban emigres.

Obama’s speech came off as just a half-hearted attempt to try to keep Latino voters in the Democratic fold as the presidential election year approaches. He’ll need to do better than that.

By Ed Morales

Ed Morales is the author of “Living in Spanglish.” He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues. ― Ed.

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)