Hope for immigrants.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Comment - Barack Obama's speech on immigration reform

President Obama's speech on immigration reform in Las Vegas picked up where his second Inaugural Address left off--on a high note. "Anyone from anywhere can write the next chapter of our story," Obama declared, reminding Americans that we are a nation of immigrants.

Obama thrilled progressives with his inaugural declaration of our country's progressive values and the historic journey "through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall" toward a more just society that includes women's rights, racial equality, gay rights, and immigrant rights--the values that inspired the nation and won him the 2012 Presidential election.

In his immigration speech, Obama announced that he was ready to take the next step toward justice for Latinos and other immigrant groups.

"Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else," the President said, to loud applause.

The debate on immigration reform can "take on a feeling of us versus them," he added, because "a lot of folks forget that most of us used to be them."

It is fitting that our first African American President, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, who often jokes about his "funny name" and shows his special understanding of our nation's polyglot history and unique promise, should decide to expend some of his political capital after winning reelection on this issue.

Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Obama, rejecting the xenophobia of the Republicans with their calls for "self-deportation" and appeals to racism and an ugly anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

With his support for the DREAM Act, which gives young people who were born abroad but have lived in the United States since childhood a chance at citizenship, Obama inspired people on the campaign trail.

Calling on Americans to find a better way to welcome the "striving, hopeful" immigrants who come to our shores, he threw down the gauntlet in Las Vegas.

"Now is the time," for comprehensive, commonsense immigration reform, the President declared.

If Congress can't get a bill together, he will send them one himself, he said.

Republicans will be hard pressed to reject the President's call to action since, as Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, acknowledged, they took a drubbing at the polls thanks in large part to their atrophied position on this issue.

Now come the details.

As is so often the case with Obama, the general principles he outlines in his speeches are considerably more inspiring...