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CHICAGO • No one likes political expediency when it doesn't go their way.
When President Obama announced his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in June 2012 — which allowed young illegal immigrants to obtain temporary legal status, driver's licenses and work permits — his supporters weren't complaining about it being a political ploy to secure re-election.
But make no mistake about it: DACA was designed to energize young Hispanics — both voting-eligible and not — and shore up Hispanic support in a summer campaign battle during which Obama was struggling to rally his base with more hope.
At the time, young immigrants were either cautiously optimistic about being granted a reprieve from priority deportation or mistaken in their belief that the DREAM Act was being unilaterally made law by the president. (Recap: the president failed to secure the five Democratic holdout votes that would have passed the full DREAM Act, with its path to citizenship, in 2010.)
Very few were talking then about all the young people who wouldn't qualify under DACA or what would happen should the president not win re-election. Certainly none of Obama's biggest supporters and allies had many criticisms about Obama's move — except to say he should have made the guidelines for DACA more generous to allow even more illegal immigrants to qualify for it.
But today it looks as though the president may not make good on his promise to provide administrative relief to the undocumented population via executive order. And his past cheerleaders are upset that he appears to be making the political calculation to delay these changes until the midterm elections in order to help Democrats' chances.
For months, close observers have been calculating the risks to Democratic officeholders from any unilateral move on immigration. Though there's been some chatter about a potential wide-ranging legalization having a net positive impact on Democratic chances of keeping the White House in 2016, most of the coverage has focused on this year's Senate races and the chance that Republicans could capture the majority in that chamber.
Democrats have articulated these worries about races across the country for well over a year. Yet until just days ago, the president kept insisting that the end of summer 2014 would bring relief to immigrants in the country illegally.
Now many Obama supporters are desperately e-blasting the media with their pleas for him to keep his word on immigration. And some are even slamming his broken promises.
Community organizers here in the president's hometown, and birthplace of the massive immigration marches in 2006 and 2007, were planning protests to express their disappointment that the president "prefers politics [over] legacy."
They weren't the only ones troubled that Obama is, yet again, putting potential immigration solutions on the back burner.
On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus put it best: "[He's] herky-jerky. We just see him veering in one direction and then the other. ... He told the Hispanic groups and the labor groups, which are very focused on this issue, that he was going to act essentially by the end of the summer. All of a sudden he's changing his mind. He's now in a position where he's going to aggravate everybody. ... Why was this not thought through when he made the announcement on June 30th that he would be getting recommendations and acting, essentially, by the end of the summer?"
The real question is how anyone could be the least bit surprised that the president may again be going back on his word. He's been doing this for years, starting when he was an Illinois state senator, promising prominent Hispanic supporters to champion their cause and then voting in ways that perplexed or angered immigrant activist groups.
Blame the president for being politically expedient — it's what politicians do — but don't be shocked.
Obama's loyalists may be feeling whiplashed by the uncertainty. But maybe these immigrant advocates should start seeing the president and his party as the immigration issue opportunists they really are.
Twitter, @estherjcepeda