A Heckler's Reasoning

SAN DIEGO -- When someone puts herself at risk to make a point, the rest of us might ask why she stuck her neck out. But she could just as well turn the question around and ask us why we stayed silent.

I asked Blanca Hernandez -- a 31-year-old undocumented immigrant, "dreamer" and heckler -- if that's how she felt recently as security escorted her out of a swanky gala for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute where President Obama was speaking.

"Exactly," she told me. "I remember seeing people wave their hands and shout, 'Get her out of here!' And, I was thinking, 'Why are you not getting up from your chairs and leaving with me?'"

What an excellent question.

Hernandez has a theory as to why more Hispanics don't speak up about Obama's record of immigration enforcement.

"If someone isn't personally affected or [doesn't] deal with this issue on a daily basis, then it's impossible to understand because they're not fully informed," she said. "Also, some people forget where they come from."

It's sad, but true.

Here's the message that Hernandez wanted to send to Obama, who was at the event to ask Hispanics to vote in the midterm elections: His dodging of the immigration issue is wearing thin with those who want to legalize the undocumented and end his deportation juggernaut.

Obama stalled immigration reform advocates earlier this year by promising that he'd take executive action to slow the removals before Labor Day -- after denying for years that he had the power to do so. Then he broke his promise.

The president does have a few things going for him with Hispanics: Many of them are Democrats first, Hispanics second; many of the U.S.-born don't care what happens to immigrants, especially the undocumented; and, as for Mexican-Americans, who are more likely to be swing voters than Puerto Ricans or Cubans, many are just glad to be invited to the party, and so they aren't likely to make a scene.

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