coming from the obama administration a significant policy change giving illegal immigrants who entered this country before the age of 16 and are currently under 30 years of age work permits. nbc s mike viqueira joins me now live and joins us from the white house. mike, this is certainly a big shift in the administration going into the summer of an election year. a major political power play. right. we ve already heard it called a political master stroke because of the shifting demographics in this country, the burgeoning hispanic latino population especially in swing states like colorado, nevada, and florida. important to note, thomas, the president had said all along he wanted to enact the dream act in any way that he possibly could. the dream act of course is stalled in congress. but there are some very important distinctions here and a limited number of things the president could do without the act of congress. this would not bestow a path to citizenship on people who are here ill
the yet that iowa if you can remember about years ago had one of the largest rates in the country and the town was devastated after they removed all the la teenos and the undocumented workers. they need to figure the balance between that and making sure they talk about the issues that they care about. you have seen this poll from the hispanic center saying that 6-10 hispanics disapprove the handling of illegal imgrant deportations. what s your thought? could that hurt the president come 2012? the president right now what he faces more than anything is enthusiasm gap. there were a lot of promises made in 2008. what he needs to do is go into the communities where the vote will make a difference. it will make a difference in florida, arizona, nevada, colorado and north carolina. he will have to talk spreading the message not just about the immigration policies, but the stuff he has done. he created jobs and done jobs
anti-hispanic beliefs and sentiments. what s your reaction? you have the state s second largest school district with a broad pattern of malfeasance. they are below academic averages to low hispanic and low income and hispanic kids. this function within the mek can american studies classes is say part of this pattern of failure for the kids. you are saying this program is not good. it does create some sort of resentment and these teachers are saying this is a front to the focus and the importance of the hispanic latino population in the state. we re took a lot of months that very carefully look at the curriculum and the lesson plans. if we were able to go in front of the judge and say this is the evidence. we took a lot of months carefully and went over this.
parties deal with that issue, there may be some folks who decide to sit on the sidelines this election but we know that it s important for immigration is an important factor for latino voters. and so people who elected officials who have a responsible position supporting comprehensive reform dealing with real solutions, i think they re going to see a very motivated latino registered voter electorate out there making a difference in these rac races. it could make a difference. we focus so much on arizona because of the controversial law there but this could really make a difference in the close race in nevada where there s such a large hispanic latino population and in california we re now seeing it driving this debate. between jerry brown and meg whitman, it has become a potential game changer. here she spent $120 million plus dollars and what everyone is remembering is nikki sanchez. that s right. and i think what we re finding