Though opinion polls showed that a majority of Americans supported the anti-immigrant law enacted by Arizona, the polls also showed that majority of the people wanted comprehensive immigration reform, said Deepak Bhargava, executive director, Center for Community Change, a Washington, DC-based national nonprofit organisation.
When hundreds of thousands of people joined rallies across the nation demanding immigration reform, Bhargava was among the few arrested for protesting in front of White House.
Upset that the Obama administration is not doing anything to reform the broken immigration system, he said only more pressure on the administration will bring changes.
"The rally across the nation showed the dissatisfaction of the people at the leadership of the president in exercising his powers for immigration reform," he said. "It demanded the president to show better leadership in this issue."
Bhargava noted though Obama is supposedly immigrant-friendly, more people were deported during the first year of his term than in the last year of President George W Bush's.
In a New York Times/CBS poll, 51 percent respondents said the Arizona law was 'about right' in its approach. Thirty-six percent said it went too far and 9 percent said it did not go far enough. Over half, 57 percent, said the federal government should determine the laws addressing illegal immigration
The polls, Bhargava said, showed people's anxiety for immigration reform. They felt that Arizona is doing at least doing something. Though the Arizona law was amended to stop racial profiling, it is only a cosmetic change and it will not affect the original law, he said.
After much criticism, the Arizona legislature and Governor Jan Brewer made changes in the law to ban the police from racial profiling and allow officers to inquire about immigration status only of people they stop, detain or arrest in enforcing another state law. But the law now includes civil violations of municipal codes as grounds to check papers. Officers may not look at the race to determine if one is illegal. But those who are not white and do not speak English well will become targets of virtual profiling, Bhargava said.
"Bills targeting immigrants are pending in many states, though not passed yet. These are also targeting the exclusive federal power regarding immigration," he said.
The Obama administration, Bhargava said, can do many things against the Arizona law, which it has not done. First, the Justice Department can challenge it in court. The administration can say that it will not cooperate with Arizona officials to verify the immigration status of people. Only federal immigration authorities can determine if one is legal or illegal.
Though the president is not doing anything in this direction, Bhargava said, the economic boycott of Arizona announced by several organizations will have much impact.
The rally was held in more than 100 cities and more than 500,000 people joined it. "We hope that this will help for change," Bhargava said.
The increased deportations, he added, have created lot of anger among the people. The President alone controls the process of deportation and he can slow down it.
During the health-care debate also, there were opposition from the Republicans. But unlike in health-care reform, the president has not put his full weight for immigration reform. Instead, Bhargava said, he is enforcing the immigration law more vigorously.
"The people are angry and more protests will follow," Bhargava added.
"President Obama says that comprehensive immigration reform is a difficult, politically divisive issue; but so was health-care reform," said immigration attorney Akansha Kalra. "The administration should at least have the courage to make CIR a priority."
