The Obama White House is working frantically to quell the political outrage among immigration rights advocates and Latino leaders who say they feel betrayed by a recent series of deportation raids launched by the administration against mostly women and children from Central America.
While the raids continue with administration support, White House aides announced an expanded State Department partnership with the United Nations to resettle Central American refugees in the United States and elsewhere, and Vice President Joe Biden traveled to the region last week to meet with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The administration’s decision to launch the raids has reopened old wounds between the White House and many Latino communities, and it has compromised the president’s efforts to create an election-year contrast with Republicans on immigration.
[The] growing blowback from congressional Democrats and advocacy groups has put the White House on the defensive just 14 months after President Barack Obama sought to repair strained relations with Latino voters by taking unilateral steps to ease the deportation threat for those with deep ties to the United States.