At the same time, the relentless deportation mill grinds on in the South. The numbers are up 500% since 2005 in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Missiissippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Obviously, there is a disconnect between what is happening in enforcement and what we're hearing from legislators in these states. The numbers speak for themselves and I read the situation as one where statistics are meaningless. No matter how much enforcement is happening, the antis will not be satisfied. And that's because this is not about law and order. It's about race. The legislators in these states use law and order as cover because it's no longer socially acceptable to admit to being a racist. So you achieve your racist ends - getting rid of immigrants - claiming you're really only trying to enforce the law but making life miserable for all of the state's Latinos regardless of their immigration status.

The President seems to be waking up to the fact that the "enforcement first" strategy pushed by the GOP which he adopted shortly after taking office is a trap. Secretary Napolitano noted this when she criticized Congress for continuing to move the "goal posts" on enforcement. President Obama seemed to realize this as well when he mocked the GOP for wanting a border moat with alligators (something Herman Cain jokingly confirmed recently).

The prosecutorial discretion memo released this summer supposedly marked the turning point where the White House stepped back from enforcement first and toward pragmatically dealing with the illegally present population and focusing enforcement on genuine criminals. But there is little evidence that much has changed at all since the release of the memo.That's consistent with similar rhetoric about Secure Communities only being used to deport criminals when the data clearly shows that a huge percentage of those picked up and deported under the program are not criminals at all.

And the Administration's history of saying the right things to Hispanics but doing little to make things better has not gone unnoticed in that community. For example, the calls for the resignation of Cecilia Munoz, the former immigrant rights leader who is the highest ranking Hispanic in the White House are growing louder. And Elise Foley at Huffington Post has just reported on another embarrassing fact - that internal DHS documents show state and local law enforcement authorities are not required to detain immigrants for ICE to pick up, despite DHS' public statements that local authorities lack choice in using the program.  That is hugely embarrassing for a White House that is counting on Hispanics to help win states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico in 2012.

The President needs to do something dramatic if he plans on turn things around with an increasingly angry Latino community. He's got a lot of options available including using administrative options to grant a temporary legal and work authorized status to a portion of out of status immigrants. The measure would no doubt be condemned by many on the right, but the President has no chance of swaying these people anyway. Forget about winning Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi. Ain't gonna happen. If Congress is paralyzed and won't solve the immigration problem, then the President should exercise his executive powers and do it on his own. He promised to help solve the problem when he ran in 2008 and he needs to deliver.

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About The Author

Gregory Siskind is a partner in Siskind Susser's Memphis, Tennessee, office. After graduating magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago. Mr. Siskind is a member of AILA, a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and a member of the ABA, where he serves on the LPM Publishing Board as Marketing Vice Chairman. He is the author of several books, including the J Visa Guidebook and The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet. Mr. Siskind practices all areas of immigration law, specializing in immigration matters of the health care and technology industries. He can be reached by email at gsiskind@visalaw.com.

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