President Barack Obama’s campaign of change is hitting a brick wall on immigration.

His electoral victory was secured by 74 percent of the Hispanic vote. These voters were won over by the candidate’s outspoken support for comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens and their family members.

Although he promised an immigration bill in his first year, the President failed to deliver. Following a bruising healthcare victory, Obama finds his administration in an immigration quagmire, which explains the passage of a half-measure Southwest Border Security Act.

The Obama administration now realizes that most Americans are concerned about border control and illegal alien crossings, a rising national crime wave by illegal alien gangs, and the stress illegal aliens place on education, healthcare, and social services.

Federal immigration laws and judicial decisions have produced the current border crisis, and comprehensive immigration reform legislation promises to follow suit. A summary review is illustrative.

1982: The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe held that benefits for the general public could not exclude illegal aliens.

1986: The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA, 42 USC Section 1395dd), codifying healthcare for illegal aliens. Under EMTALA no person can go untreated by an Emergency Room (ER) regardless of citizenship.

2004: The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured determined that U.S. hospitals went uncompensated in 2004 for medical care amounting to $40.7 billion. In California, Los Angeles County spent $340 million for medical treatment of uninsured illegal aliens.

2005: According to Border Patrol figures, 94 percent of the 1.2 million illegal border-crossers apprehended were at the Southern Border. For every illegal alien apprehended, an estimated three to five succeed in entering the United States.

2007: The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 9.7 million “uninsured noncitizensâ€