During his appearance Sunday on Meet the Press, President Obama couldn’t quite bring himself to say what is manifestly clear about his decision to postpone unilateral immigration reform action: The Democrats have far too much riding on the November election to hand Republicans additional political ammunition.

White House aides over the weekend were candid. They characterized the decision as a cold political calculation, that keeping control of the Senate was more of a priority than making good on a longstanding promise to Hispanic voters to implement reforms for illegal immigrants.

Related: Obama Won’t Block Deportations Until After Election

But the president pretty much bobbed and weaved about his motivations during an interview with Chuck Todd, the new host of Meet the Press. When Todd asked bluntly, “What do you tell the person that’s going to get deported before the election that this decision was essentially made in your hopes of saving a Democratic Senate?” the president replied: “Well, that’s not the reason.”

Instead, Obama blamed the postponement on what he described as the shifting public concerns about security along the U.S.-Mexico border. He suggested those concerns were heightened by media reports about the waves of unaccompanied Central American children and mothers with babies illegally crossing into this country in recent years.

“The politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” he said, an assertion that is borne out by recent polling. And even while the flow of these illegal immigrants has slowed in recent months, Obama said, his administration must move carefully to get the policy right for simultaneously tightening border security and determining the fate of millions of illegal immigrants and their children who have lived here for years.

Related: Obama Remains a Big Drag on Democrats’ Prospects

“Even as we’re getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure the public understands why we’re doing this, why it’s the right thing for the American people, why it’s the right thing for the American economy,” he said in the interview. “I’m going to act because it’s the right thing for the country. But it’s going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration…”

Immigration reform has been among the thorniest issues facing the White House and Congress for years. For all the controversy and bitter fighting on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail in recent months, the issue appears no closer to resolution.

The Senate last year approved bipartisan legislation to tighten border security while creating a pathway to legal status or citizenship for many people currently living in the shadows. House Republicans have stubbornly opposed a comprehensive approach – especially one that hints of “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. Instead, they insist the top priority should be spending more on deployment of border security personnel and a step up in processing and deporting illegal immigrants who were detained at the border.

Given the partisan gridlock, Obama pledged on June 30 that he would issue an executive order by early fall addressing the ongoing border security crisis and the fate of millions of illegal immigrants. He promised to unveil far-ranging changes to the immigration system – which wouldn’t require congressional approval – designed to potentially protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation while also providing work permits for many of them.

Related: Obama’s Dream Act Dooms Immigration Reform

The rate of formal deportations has risen under Obama, even as the overall number of people attempting to cross the border has fallen, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis. Two-thirds of all deportations last year stemmed from border patrol apprehensions. Some critics have dubbed Obama the “Deporter in Chief.”

Over the weekend, White House aides said the president was bowing to demands from a handful of Senate Democrats with tough reelection campaigns to postpone unilateral presidential action. Many Democrats fear another executive order by a president already charged by Republicans with repeatedly exceeding his executive authority would further rile conservatives and dash their hopes of fending off GOP challenges.

Political analysts agree n executive order at this point could hurt Democatic reelection prospects in Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina and a few other key battleground states. Colorado, with its large number of Hispanic voters, is one of the few states where Democrats might be helped by such presidential action.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Obama’s decision to delay “this deeply controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election . . . smacks of raw politics.”

Related: Rubio’s Rightward Drift on Immigration Continues

The outrage over Obama’s decision was palpable among Hispanic leaders and legal advocates. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) told ABC News’s This Week that the White House decided on a strategy of “playing it safe” while “walking away” from their political and social values.

Artuo Carmona, executive director of Presente.0rg, a Los Angeles-based Latino advocacy group, said, “The announcement is pretty shameful and once again demonstrates that for Obama, politics comes before Latino lives,” according to The Washington Post.

“Tens of thousands of human beings are likely to be separated from their families between now and the election,” added National Council of La Raza president Janet Murguia in a statement. “These families have embraced and contributed to this country. All they ask is for a chance to get right with the law, step out of the shadows and further contribute to a nation where most of them have lived for more than a decade.”

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For a beleaguered Obama administration, new accusations that the president is “playing politics” with immigration might not hurt nearly as much as the regret that he did not play politics better.

On Saturday, an administration official announced that the president will not, as promised, take executive action on immigration before the end of the summer. Immigration groups are heartbroken. With immigration reform legislation roadblocked by the Republican-run House of Representatives, unilateral action by President Obama was the only realistic chance of movement on the issue.

“The president’s latest broken promise is another slap to the face of the Latino and immigrant community,” said Cristina Jimenez, managing director for immigration advocacy group United We Dream, in a statement.

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Meanwhile, Republicans are, for the moment, gleeful at the fact that Mr. Obama has bowed to the will of vulnerable Senate Democrats and delayed his action until after the November midterms. The mounting fear among Democrats was that the executive action might drive angry conservatives to the polls, virtually assuring that the Senate would fall into Republican hands.

“The decision to simply delay this deeply-controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election – instead of abandoning the idea altogether – smacks of raw politics,” added House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio in a statement.

Mr. Boehner’s statement is both absolutely correct and completely absurd, of course. When it comes to throwing around accusations of “raw politics,” Congress is the ultimate glass house. Very little of what goes on in Congress – at least on the surface – is anything other than “raw politics,” so to accuse Obama of playing politics (as though that is unusual) smacks of hypocrisy merely meant to inflame, not enlighten.

But, in this case, is the accusation of “raw politics” even as bad as it sounds?

On one hand, all signs suggest that this is a matter of principle for Obama. Sure, he would reap a political benefit. Latinos are a growing political bloc, and such a move might have moved them even more squarely into the Democratic fold.

But most analysts felt Obama’s political timing was dead wrong.

First, non-presidential-year elections tend to have low Latino turnout compared with presidential election years. The voters who drive midterm elections are older and whiter, and these are precisely the sort of voters most likely to be outraged by an executive action easing immigration rules.

Second, even if an executive action did motivate Latino voters this fall, the 2014 election map would give Democrats few benefits. The key Senate seats up for grabs are in states with comparatively small Latino populations. So, of the 10 or so seats that could still go either way, the only Democrat who might clearly benefit from administrative action on immigration is Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado. The rest would likely suffer. Indeed, New Hampshire Republican Scott Brown has been hitting Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) hard on immigration, and a recent poll suggests he might be making up ground.

Last, this summer’s border crisis has changed the optics on the issue, with polls suggesting surging public angst. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Obama acknowledged: “The truth of the matter is – is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem.”

The question, then, is why – until Saturday – Obama was still determined to jam what could have been a politically suicidal executive action down Senate Democrats’ throats. One man’s “raw politics” is another’s sound political strategy. If you’re going to take action, why not do it when it might be a benefit to your party and not an encumbrance?

The answer, it seems, is an insight into the president himself.

Perhaps, in typical Obama fashion, the president was insistent upon the longer-term view – myopic 2014 thinking be damned. Last week, before the change in plans was announced, the National Journal’s James Oliphant wrote:

The long-term political view is that granting widespread deportation relief will accrue to the Democrats’ advantage in 2016, helping to ensure that the Obama Coalition doesn’t fray, the president is succeeded by a Democrat who will safeguard his signature accomplishments, and the Senate, if lost, is regained.

Or, perhaps, the president once again couldn’t contain his earnestness.

In recent weeks, he has come under severe criticism for saying that the US did not yet have a strategy on how to contain the Islamic State, and throughout the summer, he has been pilloried for being “disengaged” and not “leading.” For a man who sees foreign policy in endless shades of gray, that likely amounts to a form of honesty – not promising Americans something he knows he can’t deliver simply to win points with a rhetorical flourish.

The irony is that, in June, Obama spoke categorically about exactly what he would deliver. In the White House Rose Garden, he announced he had directed key administration officials to give him recommendations for executive action on immigration by the end of summer. He would, he vowed, “adopt those recommendations without further delay.”

Now, “raw politics” has forced him to adopt them – if at all – with a very notable delay.

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By Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama reversed course on Saturday and delayed taking executive action on immigration reform until after November congressional elections, bowing to concerns it could cost his fellow Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

Obama had promised in a high-profile White House appearance in June to announce unilateral measures by the end of summer if Congress did not enact immigration reform legislation.

But Obama said the surge of nearly 63,000 children from Central America crossing the border to the United States in the past year had made Americans wary of new immigration measures.

“The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” Obama said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” set to air on Sunday.

Obama said he plans to act later this year after making more of a public case for his actions, which are expected to remove the threat of deportation for some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

A White House official cited partisan politics as the main reason for the delay, saying taking action before the election would harm long-term prospects for reforming immigration laws.

“The reality the president has had to weigh is that we’re in the midst of the political season,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Immigration reform advocates called the delay a betrayal and accused Obama of putting politics first.

“Today the president and the Senate Democrats have made it very clear that undocumented immigrants and Latinos are simply viewed as political pawns,” said Eddie Carmona, campaign manager for the PICO immigration reform group.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is in a tight midterm race himself, called the decision cynical.

“He’s just saying he’ll go around the law once it’s too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November elections,” the Kentucky senator said in a statement.

Republicans, who already control the House of Representatives, have seized on immigration to attack vulnerable Democratic senators.

Republicans blamed the flood of migrant children coming across the border on Obama’s 2012 decision to grant temporary legal status to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

They have called for rolling back that policy. Hispanic groups, on the other hand, have pressed the president to expand the 2012 policy to millions of family members of those children.

In New Hampshire, the issue has helped Republican Scott Brown erode the lead in opinion polls of Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, upending White House calculations that immigration would not play a major role in the elections.

Other Democratic candidates in tough Senate races asked the White House to delay. Republicans need six seats to gain control of the chamber – a win that would badly undermine Obama for the remainder of his second term.

‘SUCKER-PUNCHED’

Obama was circumspect about the timing of his announcement on executive action when asked about it a week ago during a news conference, and advocates could see the writing on the wall.

“But I think overall the feeling is going to be they’ve been sucker-punched, because the timetable for the end of the summer had been really clear,” said Angela Kelley, an immigration policy expert at the Center for American Progress, a group that is close to the White House.

Advocacy group America’s Voice expressed bitter disappointment and blamed Obama and Senate Democrats.

“We advocates didn’t make the reform promise; we just made the mistake of believing it,” the group’s executive director, Frank Sharry, said in a statement.

Among the reforms Obama is considering are granting work permits and temporary relief from deportation to as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants. Obama said on Friday his plan would also include more enforcement against illegal immigration and steps to encourage legal immigration.

Obama and Democrats could be hurt if Latino voters, an important base of support, stay home and do not vote in close midterm races where every vote will count.

But the alternative would have hurt them more, said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

“What polls were indicating was, it would be unpopular,” Yepsen said in an interview. “Politically, he’s better off not doing it until after the election, and taking the flack for looking like he changed his mind.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed 70 percent of Americans believe undocumented immigrants threaten the country’s culture and economy.

Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, where the president’s decision could hurt him among the state’s sizable Hispanic community, said he was disappointed Obama “delayed action to keep families together” but blamed the move on House Republicans who blocked comprehensive immigration reform.

Obama will need to rebuild confidence with immigrant communities, some advocates said, and the delay may put pressure on him to embrace bolder reforms after November.

Kevin Appleby, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said earlier in the week that if he delayed action: “The pressure on Obama to go big will be even higher. I would rather see him go big in November than small in September.”

(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry, Sonya Hepinstall, Stephen Powell, Mohammad Zargham and Lisa Shumaker)

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Washington (AFP) – President Barack Obama will wait until after November’s midterm elections to reform the US immigration system with his executive power, seeking to shield lawmakers crucial to Democratic Party hopes of clinging on to the Senate.

The move, announced by a White House official Saturday and immediately condemned by immigration reform advocates, followed calls by vulnerable Democrats battling for reelection in conservative states for him to avoid action that could energize Republican voters.

The official said, however, that Obama would wield his presidential power before the end of the year to reshape a system that a gridlocked Congress has failed to fix.

That means the issue will explode in the early exchanges of the 2016 presidential race, and could force Republican candidates to take positions harmful to their standing with the crucial bloc of Hispanic voters that will be key in deciding who succeeds Obama.

But the president will have to win back the support of immigration advocates who were deeply dismayed by Saturday’s announcement, accusing him of a “breathtaking” move that will sacrifice immigrant families for political gain.

Obama’s determination to use executive powers to tackle the issue of illegal immigration — and the fates of some of the 11 million undocumented in the country — has already ignited a firestorm, and Republicans argue that his effort would exceed the authority of his office.

“The reality the president has had to weigh is that we’re in the midst of the political season,” the official said, after Obama considered his decision on a flight back across the Atlantic from a NATO summit on Friday.

“Because of the Republicans’ extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections,” the official added.

“Because he wants to do this in a way that’s sustainable, the president will take action on immigration before the end of the year.”

- Crucial elections -

Obama’s initiative could involve halting deportation proceedings against some illegal immigrants and changing the system of issuing legal immigration documents to foreigners, known as Green Cards.

He may also choose to expand a program that offers temporary visas to illegal immigrants who entered the country before they were 16 — and possibly include their parents.

A bipartisan immigration reform bill has passed the Senate but it foundered in the Republican-led House of Representatives, where conservatives brand attempts to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows an amnesty.

Republicans also accuse the president of failing to enforce existing border security laws, in a political row that has been exacerbated by the flow of thousands of unaccompanied children across the southern US frontier in recent months.

Senate Democrats fighting for survival in states including North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Alaska had made public calls for Obama not to use executive powers to reshape immigration laws.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 4 elections to grab the chamber — a scenario that would condemn Obama to a miserable final two years in office.

- ‘Raw politics’ -

Republican leaders immediately sought to keep the issue of Obama’s pending executive action alive in elections in which all of the House and a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs.

“What’s so cynical about today’s immigration announcement is that the president isn’t saying he’ll follow the law -— he’s just saying he’ll go around the law once it’s too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November elections,” said Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell.

House Speaker John Boehner said Obama’s motives smacked of “raw politics.”

Reform advocates were furious because the president had previously promised to act before the end of the summer.

“We are bitterly disappointed in the president and we are bitterly disappointed in the Senate Democrats,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice.

“We advocates didn’t make the reform promise, we just made the mistake of believing it.”

Deepak Bhargava, of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), accused Obama of a “breathtakingly harsh and short-sighted political miscalculation.”

“This delay will have tragic consequences for the fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who will be ripped from one another’s arms in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

Erika Andiola of the DREAM Action Coalition charged that Obama had solidified his “Deporter-in-Chief” legacy

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The backlog of pending deportation cases in federal immigration court has risen to nearly 400,000 amid a crush of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and families caught crossing the Mexican border illegally this year, according an analysis of court data released Friday.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University said in its latest report that as of the end of July, 396,552 cases were pending in the Justice Department’s 59 immigration courts. TRAC collects and studies a variety of federal prosecution records.

The backlog has grown by more than 75,000 cases since the start of the budget year in October, according to TRAC.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department agency that operates immigration courts, said Friday its records show a caseload of 391,243 pending cases as of July 31. An agency spokeswoman said the methodology TRAC uses to analyze court data may be different than the methods used by the government.

Since Oct. 1 the Homeland Security Department has reported that more than 66,000 unaccompanied child immigrants, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally. More than 66,000 additional immigrants traveling as families, mostly mothers and young children from Central America, have also been caught.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said that all of the immigrants caught crossing the border would face deportation hearings.

The TRAC report shows that the largest backlogs are in immigration courts in California, Texas and New York.

The large and growing court backlog has led to yearslong waits for immigration cases to be completed. Earlier this year, the Justice Department announced plans to move cases of unaccompanied immigrant children to the top of the docket.

___

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

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