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“March on D.C., or he will pull it off!”

The opposition is certainly planning on marching.

Obama risks alienating Latinos with lack of immigration reform
Mar. 5, 2010

I have known Barack Obama since 1986, when we were both community organizers. I am still organizing on the streets of Chicago, and what I see in the Latino community makes me fear that the president is oblivious to the pain wrought by our broken immigration system. It could have a profound effect on the 2010 and 2012 elections.

For a brief moment last year it appeared that Obama might realign the modern political map, cementing the Latino vote into the Democratic coalition by speaking plainly to the American people on the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Instead, he squandered a political gift handed to him by the Republican Party’s nativist wing — and its anti-immigrant rhetoric — during the 2008 campaign. Candidate Obama promised to make immigration reform a priority during his first year in office, and the Latino vote surged to 10 million, from 7.8 million in 2004, and swung eight percentage points toward the Democrats.

After he went into politics, Obama and I worked collegially on issues as diverse as health care for working families to citizenship for new Americans

Obama was shocked at the visceral anger the fence vote caused among his closest Latino allies. At a meeting for damage control, Carmen Velásquez, founder of the Alivio Medical Center for the uninsured and the closest thing to the patron saint of the Mexican American poor, refused to shake his hand. Obama apologized for not understanding the intensity of their feelings —
Obama must lead the charge for immigration reform by telling Americans the truth: that tough, fair and compassionate immigration reform is necessary for America’s economy and national security, and not just for Latino voters. He must also, somehow, convince Latinos that he really does feel their pain. [snips]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/04/AR2010030404037.html