Families urge Obama to end deportations

WASHINGTON - Hispanic families and immigrant advocates are pleading with President Barack Obama to ease his immigration enforcement policies.

They criticized Obama in a news conference Thursday for failing to keep campaign promises to change the immigration system so families and mothers and children are not torn apart.

They're questioning a recent statement by the president that he could not use his executive order powers to suspend deportations because, as he put it, doing so would not conform with his role as president.

An administration official says the president cannot choose which laws he can enforce. She says Obama believes the best solution to the breakup of families is to get Congress to pass immigration reform legislation.

OBAMA WOOS HISPANIC VOTE ON EDUCATION

With the Hispanic population hitting 50 million, the president is turning his attention to education, an issue that resonates strongly with Hispanic voters.

Early this week, Obama held a town hall meeting at a D.C. high school where two-thirds of the students are Hispanic. It was the type of center-stage treatment that, when it comes to issues of concern to Hispanics, is usually reserved for immigration.

Obama told the town hall it's critical to have a diverse, well-educated workforce, while noting that the youngest students include many Hispanics.

Obama is trying to hold onto credibility within the Hispanic community just as he needs to hang onto that critical voting bloc for his 2012 re-election bid.