President Obama made it legal for children who came to America before they were 16 and completed high school or were in the military to work legally in America. The Republicans hit back saying that the president was just playing politics

Last year in the US more non-white children were born than white children for the first time in US history. Just one more sign that America is changing. The principal reason for the change was the rapid growth of Hispanics. In the future it is likely that Hispanics will play an even bigger role in the US elections as their numbers increase. Most Hispanics in the US are from Mexico. In some states such as Arizona and Nevada they might hold the key to the elections. And Hispanics as a group are particularly sympathetic to immigrants as not so long ago many of them or their parents came from out of the country.

America was formed as an immigrant country as people left the Old World (Europe) and came to the New World. America even today with all its problems remains the biggest draw for people around the world for migration. Though there is now what is known as the reverse brain drain i.e. people moving back from America to their native countries. Though this is just a trickle and not a flood only because of the prosperity of America but it is also because it is much easier to get a job in America than most other countries in the world, further the Americans are quiet welcoming to outsiders and it is easy to assimilate in America. The US also has some of the best universities in the world with a tailor-made route to get a job and a green card.

Partly because of the proximity to America, many people from South America have come as immigrants to America over the years; some legally others illegally. Hence the issue of immigration touches a raw nerve as far as Hispanics go.

The Democrats have been regarded generally as more sympathetic than the Republicans to Hispanic voters This is due to the fact that they seem to be willing to be more liberal in allowing immigrants to live and work in the country. However, President Obama’s Homeland Security Department in the last three and half years has deported 1.1 million illegal immigrants, almost twice as many as George Bush had done. This has not gone down well with the Hispanics. To be fair to the Democrats, they did introduce the Dream Act in Congress which would have allowed more immigrants on the road to becoming legal. But the Republicans with their usual intransience blocked the legislation in the Senate.

President Obama announcing an executive order bypassing Congress made it legal for children who came to America before they were 16 and completed high school or were in the military to work legally in America. This immediately helped 8 lakh immigrants who Obama said were American all but in name. This kills many birds with one stone. It enthused President’s Latino base. It showed the intransience of the Republicans in Congress. It made a stark contrast with Governor Romney who had spoken against the Dream Act during the primaries. It made the Republicans look out of touch. The Republicans hit back saying that it was political and that the president was just playing politics.

Governor Romney and President Obama did not do anything in the first three and a half years and was now suddenly it was being done. This clearly shows that it was political. Well I suppose blocking the Dream Act in Congress was political too and in politics in the ultimate analysis everything is unfortunately political.

Senate Marco Rubio from Florida who is one of the people being considered by Governor Romney to be the vice-presidential candidate was busy drafting the Republican version of the Dream Act and said the short-term fix made the long-term solution more difficult. But the Republican response was extremely tepid. They clearly did not want to say anything on the merits of the Obama announcement.

They just made what can be called procedural arguments. Governor Romney did not give a straight reply when asked whether he would reverse the Obama decision if he became the president.

President Obama’s master stroke had suddenly changed the game.

(Harsh Desai has done his BA in Political Science from St Xavier's College & Elphinstone College, Bombay and has done his Master's in Law from Columbia University in the city of New York. He is a practicing advocate at the Bombay High Court.)