Special to DailyGrito from Politic365.

With the re-election a mere 10 months away, potential GOP candidates are strategizing to gain support from the Latino community.  President Obama, without having to focus on running against an opponent in the primaries, has already begun reaching out to the Hispanic population throughout the country.  Currently, Obama has volunteers and team members located in Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada, among other key states.

Although Obama is progressing in this area, he has yet to reform the current immigration system in place, which had been part of his original campaign goals.  Last year, 400,000 deportations took place, which is about 30% higher than the average number of deportations while President Bush was in his second term.

Seeing a need for this promise to be fulfilled quickly, the Department of Homeland Security announced in August that deportation efforts would focus more on criminal undocumented immigrants.  The Obama administration has also proposed to shorten the time Americans are separated from their spouses and children who are undocumented and waiting for a visa in order to come to the U.S.  Even though these small changes have been proposed, much still needs to be done in order for full comprehensive immigration reform to take form.

Nonetheless, a xenophobic attitude and use of language from current GOP candidates may have a majority of Latinos voting Democrat again.  For example, Mitt Romney, who has Mexican roots himself, said he would veto the proposed DREAM Act if elected.  The DREAM Act would essentially allow some undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the country when they were younger to gain legal status if they continued on towards pursuing a college degree or entering the military.

Read the full article here.