When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to send a message that racial discrimination would no longer be tolerated in our country, he filled the National Mall in our nation's capital with people supporting the cause. His message came across loud and clear.

Almost 47 years later, Latino leaders are trying to send a similar message with the gathering of thousands of Hispanics on the National Mall on Sunday, March 21, to demand action on immigration reform.

Like King, they too have a dream. The question is, Is anyone listening? And if so, will their demands lead to the kind of change that King's civil rights movement accomplished?

Without a doubt, immigration reform is the civil rights issue of the Latino community. And like the civil rights movement, efforts to overhaul our immigration laws have led to bitter, divisive debates.

President Barack Obama has been under pressure from the Latino community, which has criticized him for not keeping his campaign promise to have an immigration-reform bill he could support in his first year in office. Congressman Luis Gutierrez, who sponsored comprehensive immigration legislation late last year, laments: “President Obama is not the same as candidate Obama. ... This is about keeping promises.”

While it is understandable that Obama spent the first year of his presidency tackling other serious problems our country is facing, we cannot ignore the also-serious implications of our broken immigration system: Millions of people still in legal limbo, immigration raids still separating families, legal immigration at a virtual standstill and our border security still vulnerable.

The president tried to make amends earlier this month by having back-to-back meetings with Latino leaders from across the country -- the two senators assigned with creating a bipartisan immigration bill and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

One of the Latino leaders who attended the meeting was quite impressed. “We were expecting to meet with White House staffers,” he said, “but instead the president himself showed up.” Aside from being star-struck, Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union, says the president clearly stated his commitment to immigration reform. He said they would have to work hard in the next months to find the votes in both houses of Congress to get a bill approved.

Good luck. Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have been trying to put a bipartisan bill together, but Schumer couldn't even find a second Republican to co-sponsor it.

Graham is looking for help at the top. “The president needs to step it up a little bit. One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it,” he said recently. “I think moderate Democrats have to come on board before you get Republicans, and Republicans have to come on board before you get Democrats.”

How is the president supposed to get bipartisan support for immigration reform if he has not been able to do it for health-care reform, even after spending much of his political capital on the issue?

It really is great that President Obama reiterated his “unwavering” commitment to immigration reform. And I don't doubt his commitment. Four days before the pro-immigration march in Washington, the president put out a statement supporting the framework of the bill Schumer and Graham are working on, which, among other things, would open the door to legalization of undocumented immigrants if they admit they broke the law.

But it's not just Latino leaders, sympathetic senators and Hispanic legislators he needs to convince. He needs to talk to the American people about the importance of immigration reform. He needs to do what he does best: roll up his sleeves and speak from the heart in town-hall meetings and televised speeches.

But what happened instead after Latino day at the White House? He went back on the road to sell health care, even postponing his trip to Asia. He also added a few more issues to the agenda -- financial reform and new changes to the No Child Left Behind law. Looks like it's immigration reform that is going to be left behind.

No one wants to take on a hot-button issue just months before the midterm elections. We'll see what happens when both parties go after the now-powerful Hispanic vote.

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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)

© 2010 by Maria Elena Salinas

Distributed by King Features Syndicate