Let there be no doubt, immigration reform is still on the President’s agenda. Obama has expended considerable political capital in his push to pass health care, financial regulation, and campaign finance reforms, so it has gone to the back burner, sort of. The man is pragmatic, if he is nothing else and he realizes he has little chance of seeing his promise of immigration reform fulfilled before the mid-term elections. Having said that, Latino and Hispanic activists are not about to let the issue go completely away.

FOX News is reporting that the President held a meeting on Monday with labor leaders and activists, with the topic being how to best to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform. You can be sure, part of the strategy will be how to best portray the Republican opposition to the reforms Obama and his team come up with. If they choose to move towards a form of amnesty for the illegal immigrants now living in America, the Republicans are sure to say no, as well they should. If this happens, here is the likely result.

Latino leaders say they will work in coming months to pressure Republicans to give way and support an immigration bill — and make opponents pay at the ballot box if they don’t.

“We’re going to make absolutely crystal clear who’s at fault here,” said Eliseo Medina, a leader of the Service Employees International Union.

As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged to make immigration reform a top priority in his first year in office. When you look at his Organizing For America website, you find that he believes our immigration system is broken. Here is what the website says about the issue of immigration.

Democrats and Republicans alike overwhelmingly agree that our immigration system is broken and that it’s unacceptable to have 11 million people in the United States who are living here illegally and outside of the system. Over the past few years, the immigration debate has often been portrayed as a false choice between amnesty and mass deportation. The real debate over immigration is whether we keep a broken system that undermines our economy and national security, or whether we work together to fix it.

Now, let’s look at what he calls his guiding principles on immigration reform.

Guiding Principles:

The President has made it clear that the only way to truly secure the borders and have an orderly immigration system that honors our traditions as both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants is through comprehensive reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability:

• Responsibility from the federal government to secure our borders: The Obama administration takes this responsibility very seriously and has dedicated unprecedented resources to securing our borders and reducing the flow of illegal traffic in both directions.

• Responsibility from unscrupulous businesses that break the law: Employers who exploit undocumented workers undermine American workers, and they have to be held accountable.

• Responsibility from people who are living in the United States illegally: Undocumented workers who are in good standing must admit that they broke the law, pay taxes and a penalty, learn English, and get right with the law before they can get in line to earn their citizenship.

Comprehensive immigration reform is essential to continuing the tradition of innovation that immigrants have brought to the American economy and to ensuring a level playing field for American workers. It’s also essential to providing lasting and dedicated security for our borders.

These words sound wonderful and grand, but I have two questions. Is our immigration system really so broken that it needs a complete overhaul? What does the President and his group of community organizers and activists really mean when they say we need comprehensive immigration reform?

I fail to see where our immigration system is completely broken down. Those who enter America illegally may not want to wait in line and follow the requirements, but the fact remains that we do have such a system in place. People from all over the world can immigrate to our country legally, as long as they follow the law. I was unable to find information that explains how long it usually takes, but that is really beside the point. Just because some people disagree with how long it does take to become a legal immigrant does not give them the right to disregard the law. That may have been common practice in the past, but it has to stop.

As I have mentioned many times on this blog, the first thing we need to do concerning immigration is secure the border. Until we do that, everything else is a moot point. It may not be possible to achieve a completely secure border, without a full military lock down, and that may not be so desirable. Putting a total halt to all illegals coming into this country is a daunting task and will not be easy, but we should make every effort to bring that number to a manageable level.

I believe the main problem we have with illegal immigration is the lack of a desire for strict and unyielding enforcement of our current immigration law. For too many years, the border sifted illegal immigrants like flour, allowing them to migrate northward, in search of jobs. Those jobs have been provided by companies looking for workers who would work much cheaper than would Americans or legal citizens. Even though some local law enforcement officials have had the desire to crack down on the problem, the lack of help from Washington has limited their effectiveness.

I have written before about how our local police departments have been instructed to let illegals go through the checkpoints that have been set up. This, because once they were arrested, there was no one to take them. The federal authorities were unable or unwilling to do their job, so it is easier on everyone concerned to just let them walk. In my way of thinking, that is unacceptable and tells me that something has to change. It also begs the question; why is the federal government so unwilling to crack down hard enough on illegal immigrants to make a difference?

So, where does President Obama weigh in on the subject? Right now, he is focusing on two different things. First, he is making sure Latinos and Hispanics know he has not forgotten them. He will be giving a speech Thursday morning at American University in Washington. He met Tuesday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to brief them on the speech. In it, he is expected to reiterate that closing the border to illegals, drug traffickers, terrorists, etc., etc., is only part of the solution to fixing our “broken immigration system”. In the meantime, he continually reminds us all of how Arizona is committing a major transgression by passing a law that makes it illegal to be illegal. If he would focus on how to make the Arizona law unneeded, maybe we could see some progress. Instead, he wants the Department of Justice to sue the state. I don’t mind telling you, that doesn’t sit right with me.

Now, we come to the second of my two questions. What does the President want from immigration reform? There have been rumors that he is considering granting a form of blanket amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants who now reside in the United States. So far, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security are denying that such a plan is under consideration. Suffice it to say that if the rumors are true, the political and societal implications are enormous. Granting 11 million or more illegal immigrants legal status overnight would completely change the political landscape, in a way that would almost certainly be very damaging to our country. No doubt, such a plan would be very beneficial to Latino and Hispanic groups, for they would gain tremendous political clout with the addition to their ranks. Is this what the President is aiming for with immigration reform? I can’t begin to know the tact he is about to take on the issue, but you can rest assured, he will play it to his political advantage, if at all possible.

I think the image above tells a story. If the illegal immigrants in our country are able to put enough pressure on the President and Congress, there is no doubt they will want to be granted amnesty, in one form or another. That is their stated goal, to have came to the United States illegally and then be forgiven. After all, it is much easier than just following the law. Once that is accomplished, it will not be many days hence before they are granted the right to vote in our elections. That would be a travesty of the highest order and one we can not afford to see happen.

I go back once again to the question I asked in the title of this post. What does Obama want to see in immigration reform? We may be able to answer that question in a few days, but I fear it will not be good for our country.

Cross posted at Political Realities.