We heard it straight from the president's mouth. Our country is going through the toughest of economic times. However, as he said in his first address to the nation in a joint session of Congress, “We will rebuild, we will recover.”

It was important for President Barack Obama to attempt to restore confidence in our economy and promote his stimulus package. But in his summary of the ills that are affecting this country both domestically and abroad, the one issue that was notoriously missing was immigration.

It's that touchy issue that just won't go away. It's a difficult one to confront, especially when you have a country divided between those who would like to see immigrants on a path to citizenship and those who want all undocumented workers rounded up and deported.

The fact is that the immigration system in the United States is still as broken as it was when the electoral process began. At one point, it seemed as if it would be “the” campaign issue that would decide the 2008 election. That is, until the economy took a dramatic downturn.

Obama's position on immigration has been pretty consistent. He voted in favor of building a wall that would provide border security, but has also supported and continues to support the idea of comprehensive immigration reform. However, now that the new administration is in place, we are getting mixed signals as to how the government will proceed in terms of immigration.

In a recent interview with the popular Spanish-language radio host Eduardo Sotelo, known as “Piolin,” Obama reiterated his commitment to form a task force that would help set an agenda on immigration reform. “We are going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to become citizens are able to do it, that is cheaper, that is faster and that makes it easier to sponsor family members,” he said.

Yet a few days after that interview, immigration agents conducted the first workplace raid since Obama took office. According to reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stormed into an engine-manufacturing plant in Bellingham, Wash., and arrested dozens of people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, on suspicion that they were in the country illegally. The pro-immigration-reform group America's Voice called the raid “inconsistent with the president's vision for reform.”

Time and time again, Obama has pointed out the inhumane nature of separating families. During his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said, “I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child.” The language on the party platform states, in regard to immigration raids: “It's a problem when we only enforce our laws against immigrants themselves with raids that are ineffective, tear apart families and leave people detained without adequate access to counsel.”

“Immigration raids targeting non-criminal, undocumented workers will not fix our broken immigration system and they will not make our country safer,” said America's Voice in a press release shortly after the raid in Bellingham.

On Feb. 13, the Department of Homeland Security released a report indicating that among the more than 2 million immigrants deported between 1998 and 2007, 100,000 were parents of children who were U.S. citizens. ICE is now reviewing whether to establish procedures to determine if immigrants detained in raids have children under 18 years of age who are U.S. citizens.

Obama has emphasized the importance of dealing with the economy and housing crisis before addressing the immigration issue, and that is understandable. He has been hesitant to give an executive order putting a moratorium on the raids. But it is time the administration's actions were more in tune with the intended good will toward immigrants in our country and with its commitment to fix our broken immigration system.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www .mariaesalinas.com)

© 2009 by Maria Elena Salinas

Distributed by King Features Syndicate