 earing a backlash from Middle America if they act too quickly on a left-wing agenda, Democrat strategists and congressional allies of President Barack Obama say they might delay enactment of some of Obama's radical campaign promises -- such as amnesty for illegal aliens -- at least for a few months.
But the president's supporters say they still expect the new administration to move toward granting amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens in the fall or spring. At the same time, they say Obama intends to further relax enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.
Some of the president's advisors told the New York Times last month that Obama's campaign pledges that he will raise taxes, increase environmental regulations, grant amnesty to illegals, and force soldiers to live and train with homosexuals may have to be delayed or introduced very gradually as long as America's economic doldrums continue.
The strategy appears to be calculated to avoid stirring up too much opposition all at once.
Obama himself told an interviewer on ABC News, "I want to be realistic here. Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped."
One of the promises he made during the camaign was to grant amnesty to some 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens so they could have "a path to citizenship."
The leaders of one pro-immigration group who are close to Obama's transition team say the new president will simply back off of border enforcement. The move is apparently designed to replace immediate action on immigration legislation.
"There will be a reassessment of whether aggressive targeting of criminal aliens thorugh the use of federal criminal statutes is an effective use of scarce law enforcement resources," predicted Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The center is a left-wing think tank headed by former Clinton administration honcho John Podesta, who also headed up Obama's transition team.
Frank Sharry, director of the pro-immigration pressure group America's Voice, predicted that action on immigration legislation is likely to come in the fall.
"We are confident and very optimistic that there's likely to be a big window of opportunity between September 2009 and March 2010," he said.
Amnesty backers think that's a good time because members of Congress won't face re-election worries for another year, and they hope voters will be too preoccupied with other matters to notice.
"I think that would be a good time simply because there are no federal elections going on, and beyond that, it is really important for us to get this really done at a time when we do not have huge immigration rhetoric going on around the nation," said Los Angeles Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahony, an amnesty activist.
Janet Murguia, president of the openly racist pro-immigration Natioal Council of La Raza, insisted that she had a firm pledge from Obama to push his immigration legislation in his first year in office.
"President Obama has made clear a campaign commitment to address this issue in his first year, and we know he takes that very seriously. And we plan to hold him accountable," she told reporters in a conference call.
Presidential aides were quick to assure reporters that Obama's radical agenda will not be swept under the rug.
"Our intent is to follow through on all our commitments," said Obama senior advisor David Axelrod. "But obviously, we have to prioritize."
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