Obama Skips Hispanic Conclave Third Time

Members of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Leaders (NALEO) are upset at President Barack Obama for passing on their annual conference for the third consecutive year -- after he promised in 2008 that he would return as president, according to a Politico report.

“It is getting harder and harder for the president to go into a venue where he is confronted by Latinos because he is in a jam,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., one of Obama’s earliest Hispanic supporters and a member of NALEO.

“In front of a group like NALEO, blaming Republicans for their intransigence on immigration reform and not addressing what the president’s own administration is doing to immigrants would not wash,” said Gutierrez, who attended with Obama the 2008 NALEO conference. “So it isn’t surprising to me that the president is not showing up.”

Case-in-point: Deportations have increased under Obama.

NALEO, which includes more than 6,000 Latino leaders who represent major blocs of voters in key electoral states, opens its annual conference Thursday in San Antonio, Texas.