Obama pledges immigration reform early in 2nd term

CARTAGENA, Colombia — President Barack Obama is promising to tackle immigration reform in the first year of a second term.

Obama says in a television interview that he would work on immigration this year, but can’t get support from Republicans in Congress. Obama also tried to paint his Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, as an extremist on immigration, saying he supports laws that would potentially allow for people to be stopped and asked for citizenship papers based on an assumption that they are illegal.

Hispanics are an increasingly important voting bloc in presidential elections. Obama won a sizeable majority of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 election and his campaign is hoping to similar results this November.

Obama spoke in an interview with Univision while in Colombia for the Summit of the Americas.