In case we had any doubts, President Obama confirmed to a million inboxes this evening that his immigration-reform speech in El Paso, Texas, earlier today was a big, fat no-promises stunt to woo the crucial Latino voting block back over to Team Hope. He wasted no time before asking Latinos (and bleeding-heart liberals), via email, to help fund his 2012 campaign — that is, if they ever want to see their deported grandmothers again.

A note with the subject line “Fixing what's broken” addresses us personally (we're tickled), then rambles on, eloquent as always, about America's broken immigration system and why the president is helpless to fix it alone.

He pleads:

Because this is such a tough problem — one that politicians in Washington have been either exploiting or dodging, depending on the politics — this change has to be driven by people like you.

Washington won't act unless you lead.

So if you're willing to do something about this critical issue, join our call for immigration reform now. Those who do will be part of our campaign to educate people on this issue and build the critical mass needed to make Washington act:

https://my.barackobama.com/Immigration-Reform

The link guides us to a video of Obama's speech in Texas (embedded below) and a red-hot button labeled “ADD YOUR NAME.” Seems like some kind of feel-good petition, right?

Wrong. “ADD YOUR NAME” yields a standard campaign-contribution form with slots for your billing address, credit-card info, etc. — ready to be dumped into the general Obama fund, the “immigration reform” earmark forever lost to the Interwebs.

Dude — did we just get 'Rack-rolled?

All this whining about Republican resistance to anything not fence- or taser-related is getting old.

As one L.A. protester pointed out at a downtown demonstration today, Obama had a Democratic supermajority for the entire first half of his presidency. Where was all this urgency and solidarity — e.g., “you and I need to be the ones talking about this issue in the language of hope, not fear” — back when the POTUS could have actually done something about it?

To be fair, Obama may be having some regrets about that.

Upon election, he immediately amped border security and deportations to never-before-seen brutishness as a concession to Republicans (perhaps desparate for those few extra health-care bill votes?), and is now acting extremely that bitter they didn't bite. Via the NYT:

“We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement,” he added. “All the stuff they asked for, we've done. But even though we've answered these concerns, I've got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time” — to the point of seeking a moat and alligators, he joked. “That's politics.”

During the president's grand tour of Latin America in March, which kick-started this conveniently timed Latino-friendly crusade, UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda explained to the Weekly how the president's plan went terribly wrong:

Obama is “buying into [the right-wing] mentality… so he can then have credibility [to make reforms] — but the more he goes to the right, the Republicans move even further to the right.”

Now, the overwhelming sentiment among Latino activists is too little, too late.

Let us know: Are you buying it? (Literally.)

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

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