AT MEXICO SUMMIT, OBAMA SAYS IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL HAVE TO WAIT

The President, Noting He Has 'A Pretty Big Stack of Bills' To Deal
With, Says Pushing Through a Bill to Overhaul Immigration Is Unlikely
Before 2010.

By Peter Nicholas and Tracy Wilkinson, Reporting from Guadalajara, Mexico

Locked in a healthcare debate that is claiming much of his energy,
President Obama acknowledged that a push to overhaul the nation's
immigration system will have to wait until 2010 and even then will
prove a major political test.

Obama suggested it would be too ambitious to aim for passage of new
immigration laws before the end of the year, at a time when he will
be confronting "a pretty big stack of bills."

Speaking at the end of a two-day summit meeting of fellow North
American leaders, Obama said, "Now, I've got a lot on my plate, and
it's very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in a way
where they don't all just crash at the same time."

The summit provided a brief forum for addressing lingering grievances
among the trio of North American countries. Mexico is upset that the
U.S. won't allow truckers to move cargo within American borders,
while Canada is unhappy about "Buy American" provisions written into
the $787-billion stimulus bill passed into law in February. Obama
sought to placate his counterparts on both points. But other issues
were also raised, including the coup in Honduras and the human rights
record in Mexico.

Obama said he won't ignore immigration. His administration is meeting
with lawmakers and coming up with a bill that would enjoy bipartisan
support, so that "when we come back next year . . . we should be in a
position to start acting."

As a candidate, Obama said during a campaign stop in July 2008 that
he would make immigration "a top priority in my first year as
president." But the realities of governing have forced him to
reexamine how best to roll out his agenda.

Opponents of the existing immigration structure said they were
dismayed by the timetable.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an advocacy
group, said he does not expect immigration reform to be as difficult
as the administration seems to think it will be.

"I think we'd be smarter to move on it this year," Sharry said.
"There's a real hunger on the part of the American public to make
sure immigrants are legal, are working towards citizenship, are
paying their taxes and not being used by bad-actor employers to
undercut honest employers."

Several Mexican officials also reacted with disappointment.

"This is not good news," said Mexican Sen. Carlos Navarrete of the
leftist Democratic Revolution Party. "However, we can hope that
Latino Congress members who have taken on this initiative [of
immigration reform] will maintain their activism in this matter."

Obama predicted that he would prevail in providing a road to
citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

"Ultimately, I think the American people want fairness," said Obama,
speaking on a stage alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon and
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Obama said he raised with Calderon the issue of human rights
violations by the military in its war on drug traffickers. He said he
was reassured that the Mexican government is confronting the problem,
giving better training to soldiers and police, and seeing to the
investigation of alleged abuses.

"I have great confidence in President Calderon's administration
applying the law-enforcement techniques that are necessary to curb
the power of the cartels, but doing so in a way that's consistent
with human rights," Obama said.

Allegations of army abuse, including torture, rape, illegal
detentions and murder, have soared since Calderon in 2006 deployed
more than 45,000 troops across the country to battle powerful drug
cartels. In many cities, the army has supplanted local officials and
assumed all law enforcement duties.

The accusations have also jeopardized a portion of the U.S. money due
Mexico under the three-year, $1.4-billion Merida Initiative designed
to better equip and train Mexican security forces. A single U.S.
lawmaker, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), has blocked about $100
million until the State Department can certify that Mexico is
respecting human rights as it conducts a difficult and deadly
campaign against traffickers.

Calderon was defiant in Monday's news conference, challenging his
critics to find a case in which authorities did not investigate and
prosecute guilty parties.

"Our commitment to human rights is absolute," Calderon said. "We have
met and will continue to meet this commitment, not because of any
money that may or may not come through the Merida Initiative, and not
because a U.S. congressman asks for it, but because of our profound
convictions."

In a statement, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Calderon's
assertion "flies in the face of all available evidence."

Obama and his fellow Mexican and Canadian leaders reiterated their
demand that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya be reinstated and
"constitutional order" restored to the Central American country. But
they complained that critics who say the U.S. government isn't doing
enough to make that happen are hypocrites. Zelaya was deposed in a
coup and deported June 28.

"The same critics who say the United States has not intervened enough
in Honduras are the same people who say we're always intervening and
[that] Yankees need to get out of Latin America," Obama said in one
of the more spirited exchanges during Monday's news conference. "You
can't have it both ways."

He said critics were urging the U.S. government to act in a fashion
- -- perhaps even using force to reinstate Zelaya -- that the same
people would condemn in "every other context."

Kristina Sherry in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.