Immigration vs. Immigration vs. Immigration

Three meetings in three weeks, for President Obama on the issue of immigration.

First there was an April 19th meeting of business, religious and political leaders designed to brainstorm how to revive immigration-related legislation, which is stalled in Congress.

“At the end of the day, the president cannot fix administratively what is broken in the immigration system,” said a senior White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. The official said the White House had made a strategic decision to focus all its efforts on passing the overhaul rather than acting unilaterally to make smaller changes.

Mr. Obama first rejected executive action to suspend deportations during a town-hall-style meeting broadcast in late March on Univision, the Spanish-language television network.

But calls for him to change his mind have only multiplied since then. In a letter on April 13, the top two Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, and 20 other Democrats sent a letter asking the president to defer deportations of illegal immigrant students. The Dream Act bill passed the House but failed in the Senate last year.

And then there was the “celebrity brigade” which included such great immigration experts as Eva Longoria, Don Francisco, Gloria Estefan, Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera. Not to take anything away from them of course. The meeting can be summarized with this:

However, actress Eva Longoria, who attended Thursday's meeting, told reporters afterwards that it wasn't a matter of Obama being able to act on his own.

"We like to blame Obama for the inaction, but he can't just disobey the law that's written," Longoria said. She urged Latinos to register to vote and make their voices heard about immigration and other issues.

Which led to finally, a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, many of whom would politely disagree with Eva Longoria. No breakthroughs.

"How is the president going to proceed? You guys are going to have to ask him," Gutierrez told reporters on the White House grounds. He said last month that he was uncertain whether he could support the Obama in 2012 if the president didn't step up immigration changes.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of Texas said the caucus would like to see consistent policies on how young illegal immigrants are treated. In some but not all cases, students' deportations are delayed, he said.

Earlier in the day, White House advisers Melody Barnes and Cecilia Munoz told reporters in a briefing that the White House would not agree to proposals suggesting executive action to declare categorically that certain segments of the immigrant community would be exempted from deportation.

But when asked whether the administration was asking the Homeland Security Department to consider taking different approaches on deportation or other issues, Barnes and Munoz said the department was considering a range of actions.

"The president stressed absolutely that the real fix is going to have to be legislative," Gonzalez said.

This isn’t about endless meetings, trying to assess what the “community” wants and then helping us come to some sort of compromise around implementation. This is about leadership, pure and simple. Having a vision, articulating it well, and executing it. And of course, along the way helping Americans understand why tackling this issue is important for ALL OF US.

No one is happy about what is going on, and the President is looking increasing like he cannot provide leadership on moving his ideas – whatever they may be – forward.  And in the meantime, Arizona-like anti-immigrant bills on the state level continue to go viral.  Florida.  Georgia.  Utah.  To name a few.