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FILE - In this June 30, 2014, file photo President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, pauses while making an announcement about immigration reform in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. Then the president said he was done waiting for House Republicans to act on immigration, and that he planned to act on his own via executive action. According to White House officials Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, Obama has decided to delay any executive action on immigration until after the November congressional elections. The two officials said Obama decided Friday as he returned to Washington from a NATO summit in Wales that circumventing Congress with executive actions on immigration during the midterm campaign would politicize the issue and hurt future efforts to pass a broad overhaul of the immigration system. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) With frustration mounting, President Barack Obama sought Thursday to quell doubts hell use his presidential powers to act on immigration, telling Hispanics and immigration activists its not a question of if but when.

At the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institutes annual gala, Obama warned activists that his eventual actions will spark intense political opposition that could threaten the durability of what he does. In a partisan pitch a month before Election Day, he urged Hispanics across the U.S. to use their votes to improve prospects in the future for a legislative fix.

The moment I act and it will be taking place between the November election and the end of the year opponents of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics, Obama said. When opponents are out there saying who knows what, Im going to need you to have my back.

Once hailed as a champion for Hispanic rights, Obamas relationship with the Hispanic community has become strained since he decided last month to abandon his earlier pledge to act quickly after summers end to help some immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Instead, he said hed wait until after the Nov. 4 elections, exasperating immigration activists who accused the president of putting politics ahead of their families and said they had waited far too long already.

With the elections nearing, Obama sought to parlay impatience into motivation for Hispanic voters to elect politicians who will enact more sweeping reforms to fix the U.S. immigration system. Arguing that no executive action on immigration could be as comprehensive as what Congress could do, he urged Hispanics at the black-tie dinner to go into their communities to ensure voters dont stay home.

Yes we can if we vote, he said, first in Spanish and then in English, in a twist on his 2008 campaign slogan.

The White House has been coy about what unilateral actions Obama and his administration are considering, and legal experts differ about just how far Obama can go without Congress. Immigration activists are calling for Obama to act aggressively to free a sizeable portion of the 11.5 million immigrants here illegally from fear of deportation.

Such a possibility has incensed Republicans who say Obamas willingness to ignore existing laws is the key reason theyre reluctant to work with him to pass new ones.

The presidents promise isnt about making the best policy or enforcing the law its an admission that his pledge to not uphold the law in the future would be bad for his party now, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.

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Obama: Action on immigration not if, but when