As Obama assured the world that the U.S. will continue to fund Mexico’s drug war, he reiterated that he would do nothing regarding immigration reform–at least not this year.

Why not?

The president said he expects draft legislation and sponsors by the end of the year, but no action until 2010 because of more pressing issues, including health-care reform, energy legislation and financial regulatory changes.

“That’s a pretty big stack of bills,” he said.

Immigration is among the most controversial items on Obama’s legislative agenda, with critics opposing what they call an amnesty for illegal workers and businesses concerned about reductions in their labor force. President George W. Bush twice attempted immigration reform during his second term, without success.

As a member of a community that is actively being imprisoned, hunted down, ripped from families, and otherwise terrorized, I find this reasoning so hard to swallow. How is immigration NOT connected to health care? Or financial regulation for fuck’s sake?

The only good thing about this delay is that immigration groups can hopefully use that time to mobilize grassroot support for truly transformative and (maybe even radical?) change.

We’ll see.