Obama Promises Immigration Reform Early in 2nd Term

During a recent interview with Univison, President Barack Obama declared his firm promise to focus on immigration reform early on in his second term, if re-elected. The president told Univison that the largest roadblock he has encountered is the GOP-heavy Congress.

“The challenge we’ve got on immigration reform is very simple: I’ve got a majority of Democrats who are prepared to vote for it and I’ve got no Republicans who are prepared to vote for it," President Obama said during his April 14 interview. "What we need is a change either of Congress or we need Republicans to change their mind, and I think this has to be an important debate during – throughout the country."

Obama's vision of immigration reform is in opposition to stances on immigration of GOP candidates such as Mitt Romney. Romney has stated that he would like to see immigration laws as stringent as those currently practiced in Arizona across the country.

"These are laws that potentially would allow someone to be stopped and picked up and asked where their citizenship papers are based on an assumption," President Obama told Univision.

Despite these promises, some communities are still having trouble arousing the level of interest in Obama as they had seen in 2008. In the eastern Washington city of Yakima, 19 Democratic caucus sites only drew in 158 people, a far cry from the 1,782 people and 800 delegates that came out for the Democratic party in 2008, the Yakima Herald reported.

The Herald believes that the lack of enthusiasm for the president is in part due to the fact that he is familiar – therefore less enthralling than a newly minted president would be – and not necessarily a sign of a lack of enthusiasm for Obama overall.

According to Real Clear Politics, the average approval rating for President Obama is 47.4 percent.