New York Times (Article by Peter Baker and Ashley Parker): President Barack Obama assailed Republicans on Friday as obstacles to fixing the nation's immigration system, and said his opponent would block efforts to let young immigrants stay if they were brought into the United States illegally by their parents.
In what amounted to the general election campaign's first debate on immigration policy, Mr. Obama appeared before the same Latino audience that heard from his challenger, Mitt Romney, a day earlier.
A poll released on Friday by Latino Decisions and America's Voice found Mr. Obama had a commanding lead over Mr. Romney among Hispanics in election battleground states including Florida, Colorado and Virginia. In the five states combined, Mr. Obama leads Mr. Romney among Hispanics by 63 per cent to 27 per cent.
On Thursday, Mr. Romney struck a more conciliatory tone toward illegal immigrants than he took during the Republican primary season, but he backed only limited steps to address the concerns of many Hispanic voters.
Speaking to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in the heart of the swing state of Florida, Mr. Romney made his most extensive remarks on immigration since Mr. Obama announced his breakthrough directive on illegal immigration last week. Mr. Romney reiterated his support for giving legal status to illegal immigrants who serve in the military and said he would staple a green card to the diplomas of immigrants who receive advanced degrees.
He did not repeat the language he used during the primary season about encouraging illegal immigrants to self-deport, and he did not address Arizona's controversial law, now before the Supreme Court, that requires law-enforcement officers there to demand proof of immigration status when they suspect someone might be in the United States illegally. But he remained vague about whether he would leave in place the temporary measures taken by Mr. Obama to allow young people to remain in the United States.
Mr. Romney's nearly 20-minute speech was met with tepid applause and moments of pointed silence.
On Friday, Mr. Obama told the same group of Hispanic officials that they should not trust Mr. Romney's shifting rhetoric.
Mr. Obama touted his own decision last week to stop kicking many young immigrants out of the country, saying he was lifting the shadow of deportation from those who deserved to stay in the United States. By contrast, he pointed to Mr. Romney's opposition to legislation known as the Dream Act intended to offer a path to legal status for many of the same young people.
Mr. Obama's speech on Friday was framed to capitalize on last week's decision, bolstering support from a critical constituency that leans strongly in his direction but has been disappointed that he has not taken stronger action to liberalize immigration rules. Mr. Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president, while in the face of Republican resistance he has done relatively little to push broader legislation providing a path to legal status for millions more in the country without permission.
Mr. Obama received a warmer response from the audience than Mr. Romney on Thursday, with those in attendance at times standing to give him ovations. But a conservative Hispanic leader said the President's words rang hollow to him given the lack of progress in forging a bipartisan solution.
"Where is the leadership?" asked Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. He said that former president George W. Bush did a better job of working across the aisle on immigration, and argued that Mr. Romney would be more likely to find a solution with a Republican Congress next year.
"We have a better chance of getting something constructive done in immigration with Romney than Obama," Mr. Aguilar said.
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