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June 18th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Mitt Romney is coming under pressure from Latino activists to come off the fence on immigration reform when he speaks at a major conference in Florida.
Latino organisations urged him to come out in support of Barack Obama‘s announcement on Friday suspending deportations of up to 800,000 young undocumented migrants and offering them two-year work permits.
Romney ducked the issue in an interview on Sunday, refusing to say whether, as president, he would reverse Obama’s decision.
The Republican nominee is scheduled to address a conference in Orlando of Latino public officials on Thursday. Obama is scheduled to address it the following day.
About 1,000 Latino officials have signed up to attend the three-day convention, where the increasingly pivotal role of Latinos in US politics will be among the topics discussed.
Cesar Vargas, managing partner of the DRM Capitol Group, one of the leading organisations representing undocumented youth, said: “Romney needs to do a serious catch-up. I do not think he was prepared for the president’s move. I think Romney is in a very difficult position.”
He added: “He has a dilemma on Thursday … If he says he will repeal it, it will be a complete nail in his coffin.”
Polls have consistently shown Obama enjoying a huge advantage over Romney among Latinos, at least two-to-one and sometimes even almost three-to-one. But these polls hid a high degree of disillusionment with Obama among Latinos upset over his failure, up until Friday, to deliver on a campaign promise to tackle immigration reform.
Vargas reflected the new enthusiasm for Obama after Friday’s decision. “We were speechless. He gave us a reason to believe in the president again.”
A poll by Latino Decisions found that the announcement had wiped out an earlier enthusiasm deficit. The poll, conducted among Latinos in the battleground states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, recorded 49% saying the move made them more enthusiastic about the president compared with 14% who said they were less enthusiastic. Earlier this year, the survey found a 19% enthusiasm deficit for Obama.
Vargas said that he did not think Romney naming Florida senator Marco Rubio as his vice-presidential running-mate would change the dynamic. He cited several reasons, including that Rubio is a Cuban-American whereas the bulk of the Latinos in America were from Central and South America.
The DRM Capitol Group is planning to hold a rally outside the conference on Thursday.
During the primaries, Romney’s rhetoric was largely hostile towards immigration reform, including a pledge to veto the Democrat-backed Dream Act which would provide a route to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. He also called for “self-deportation” and described Arizona’s tough anti-immigration laws as a model for the entire country.
But since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee he has begun to soften his stance, including distancing himself from the author of some of the toughest anti-immigration laws in the country, Kris Kobach. Rubio was working on a potential compromise on illegal immigration.
Rubio, in an interview to be aired on ABC Monday night, complained that Obama’s move was only a short-term solution.
“I know that a lot of these kids will take this as good news because they are desperate for some form of resolution,” he said. “This is a short-term solution. This is a short-term solution to something that requires a long-term answer. And my bigger concern is that by doing this by executive order by ignoring and going around the Congress this may make it harder in the long term to solve this problem.”
Rubio, whose autobiography comes out on Tuesday, said Obama should have worked with Congress and complained the White House had not approached him before the announcement to discuss it.
“If they were serious about a real solution to this problem and not politicising it then why don’t you reach out to people? We’re trying to work out a real solution,” Rubio said.
The Obama campaign, building on Friday’s announcement, disclosed on Monday that it had secured an endorsement from Hispanic talk show host and community leader Cristina Saralegui.
“This is the first time that Saralegui has endorsed a president or actively participated in a presidential campaign. For 21 years, Cristina and The Cristina Show entertained, uplifted, and educated the Hispanic community in the US and throughout the world,” the Obama campaign said.
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