Obama: Immigration Reform Inaction Was 'Biggest Failure

President Barack Obama said on Thursday at a Univision News forum that he failed to pass immigration reform as promised, blaming a tough economic situation that put it lower on the priority list and a Republican Party that was unwilling to participate.

"When we talked about immigration reform in the first year, that was before the economy was on the verge of collapse," he said at University of Miami. "Lehman Brothers had collapsed, the stock market was collapsing. So my first priority was making sure we didn't fall into a depression."

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who co-anchored the forum with Maria Elena Salinas, is an advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, which Obama also has consistently supported. But the president didn't get off easily on his immigration record, which includes record deportation rates and a failed Dream Act legislative push.

By the end of the program, Obama had been hammered into submission on his immigration reform promise. Asked what he considers his biggest failure, he turned to Ramos. "Jorge, as you remind me, my biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done yet," he said to laughter from the audience, adding it wasn't for lack of trying.

In his current term, he blamed the failure on Republicans in Congress, who he said he invited to partner with him on immigration reform.

He singled out Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his 2008 opponent. McCain was part of a 2007 effort to pass immigration reform, but voted in 2010 against the Dream Act, legislation to help undocumented young people who entered the United States as children.

"What I confess I did not expect, and so I'm happy to take responsibility for being naive here, is that Republicans who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform -- my opponent in 2008, who had been a champion of it and who attended these meeting -- suddenly would walk away," he said. "That's what I did not anticipate."Ramos wasn't satisfied with his answers.
Ramos: "I don't want it to get lost in translation," Ramos said, switching briefly into English in an otherwise Spanish-language interview. "You promised. And a promise is a promise. With all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."

#FORWARD LETS SEE IF HE WILL KEEP UP THIS TIME.