[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/10/mtp.art.jpg caption="Maria Teresa Petersen is the founding Executive Director of Voto Latino."]

Maria Teresa Petersen is the founding Executive Director of Voto Latino, a youth driven, national organization founded for the purpose of creating a unified voice for Latino youth on policy and advocacy issues.

With all the debate about immigration, there is one thing everyone agrees with: we have a national problem and we keep putting off dealing with it. For years our immigration policy has been mañana, mañana, mañana – the famous Spanish expression which means putting it off until another day. During the presidential campaign last year, then Candidate Obama said he would break that cycle, and this week, President Obama began making good on that promise by raising the issue once more.

Will we get comprehensive immigration reform this year? It’s entirely possible we will, and, if not, we will at least make real progress toward legislation for next year. Many say that the economy is a big enough problem for President Obama and he shouldn’t add more to his plate. But immigration is not a side dish. It’s one of the core problems we face and we must deal with it now. As Rahm Emmanuel has said, the White House sees this crisis as an opportunity to address long-neglected national problems like healthcare, social security, and immigration.

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