warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Obama Slams GOP Stance On Immigration At NALEO

Danny Lee |
June 22, 2012 | 2:09 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Obama speaks to a Latino group in Orlando, Fla. (Screencap from NALEO speech)
Obama speaks to a Latino group in Orlando, Fla. (Screencap from NALEO speech)
President Obama continued to draw a sharp distinction between his stance on immigration and that of Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s when he spoke to a large conference of Latinos in Orlando, Fla. on Friday.

Obama’s speech to members of the National Association of Latino Elected Appointed Officials came one week after his announcement that undocumented immigrants under age 30, who were brought to the United States as children, would be eligible to avoid deportation and granted work permits for up to two years.

The President did not mention Romney by name, but reminded the crowd of Romney’s opposition to the DREAM Act, a legislation that would help put undocumented students and veterans on a path to citizenship.

“Your speaker from yesterday, he’s promised to veto the DREAM Act, and we should take him at his word,” Obama said in The Washington Post.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio criticized Obama during his own speech at the convention, calling the President’s new immigration policy a political ploy.

“In both my head and my heart I felt today, personally, we are as close as we have ever been to a turning point in the debate about immigration,” Rubio said in the Orlando Sentinel.

From The Washington Post:

“I know in a few moments you’ll hear from the president. I was tempted to come here and tell you, ‘Hey, he hasn’t been here in three years. What a coincidence; it’s an election year,’” Rubio said. “I was tempted to tell you, ‘Why didn’t he make this issue a priority?’”

Obama, who voted for the DREAM Act while in the Senate, accused Republicans in Congress of stalling the bill.

But along with immigration, Obama addressed unemployment, which has left 11 percent of Latinos out of work. The national unemployment rate is at 8.2 percent.

"Of course the economy isn't where it needs to be. Of course there's still too many who struggle," Obama said. "We've got so much more work to do.”

The Latino voting demographic could decide the result in key November election battleground states such as Colorado, Florida and Nevada. A recent poll revealed that Obama has increased his lead over Romney among registered Latino voters in five swing states.

Obama leads Romney 63 to 27 percent among registered Latino voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Nevada, according to Yahoo News. In Arizona, 74 percent of Latino voters preferred Obama over Romney.

Analysts predict that Romney would need to secure at least 40 percent of Latino votes to win the general election, although estimates could change depending on turnout.

For more of Neon Tommy’s coverage of immigration, click here.

 

Reach Executive Producer Danny Lee here; follow him here.



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness