Nevada political ad bashes Obama over deportations

By Tovin Lapan

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 | 10:20 a.m.

A new ad set to air on Spanish-language television in Nevada attacks President Barack Obama for his deportation record.

The 30-second advertisement, paid for by American Principles in Action and its local Latino outreach wing Nevada Hispanics, is titled “No More Lies” and criticizes Obama for not accomplishing comprehensive immigration reform in his first term.

"Don’t be fooled by President Obama’s words. He's not committed to immigrants; he only wants our vote. With the election on the line, he offers our undocumented youth a temporary solution that still cheats them of legal status," the ad states, referring to the deferred action for immigrants who arrived in the country illegally at a young age.

"Why didn’t he keep his promise to push immigration reform?" the narrator asks. "Instead, Obama has deported more people than any other president in this country's history. With friends like these, who needs enemies? In November, make your vote count."

Under Obama, the annual average for deportations has been nearly 400,000, approximately 30 percent higher than the annual average during the second term of the Bush administration and about double the annual average during George W. Bush’s first term.

American Principles in Action is a Washington, D.C.-based political nonprofit that does not have to disclose its donors. The ad buy is reportedly worth $38,000, and will air on Univision and Telefutura.

The ad makes no mention of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who polls show is trailing Obama among Latino voters 70 percent to 22 percent.

Obama's re-election campaign, however, was quick to turn attention back to Romney’s stated views on immigration, which have included support for Arizona's immigration enforcement law, SB 1070.

“Mitt Romney and his allies' extreme positions on immigration can't be erased by any attack ad. Romney has campaigned with the nation's leading anti-immigrant voices, promised to veto the Dream Act, and wants to encourage all undocumented immigrants to self-deport,” said David Beltran, Obama for America press secretary. "While Romney would have the most extreme immigration platform of any presidential nominee in recent history, the president and his administration have made significant progress in implementing immigration policies that reward hard work and demand responsibility – including offering a temporary solution to Dreamers, talented and patriotic young men and women who were brought here as children through no fault of their own, do not pose a threat to our national security and go to school or served in our military."

Beltran also said Republicans have obstructed Democratic attempts to reform the immigration system.

"President Obama is committed to passing comprehensive immigration reform and the Dream Act – proposals that would be the law of the land today if Republicans, who once supported these sensible solutions, were less concerned about pandering to the far right wing of their base," Beltran wrote in an email response. "The choice between Mitt Romney and President Obama on immigration could not be clearer: President Obama supports commonsense solutions to fix our broken immigration system, while Mitt Romney and his allies are using this issue as a political wedge."

A Pew Research Center poll from December found that Latinos disapproved of Obama's deportation record by a 2-to-1 margin but also found that fewer than half, 41 percent, of all Latinos actually knew that deportations increased under Obama.