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WASHINGTON -- President Obama insisted Thursday that hes not the "deporter in chief," as critics have labeled him, but the "champion in chief" of a fairer immigration policy.

But until Congress passes a new law, Obama said, he is constrained by current statutes in how he treats immigrants who entered the country illegally.

I cannot ignore those laws any more than I can ignore any of the other laws that are on the books, Obama said. Thats why its important to get comprehensive immigration reform done this year.

Support for that view among reform advocates is splintering, a fact becoming clearer by the day. The president of the National Council of La Raza, the countrys largest Latino advocacy organization, this week coined the deporter in chief term for the Democratic president the group has worked with in the past.

Then Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Obamas fellow Illinois Democrat, used the same phrase on the House floor as he complained about Obamas policy of continuing to deport illegal residents.

When Obama sat down for a town hall meeting Thursday, hoping to boost Latino enrollment in health insurance plans, one of the Spanish-speaking hosts started off by asking about the deporter in chief comment.

Obama answered that he has been pushing for comprehensive reform.

I am the champion in chief of comprehensive immigration reform, Obama said. He pointed out that his administration has turned its focus away from deporting young immigrants brought to this country when they were children and instead put the priority on immigrants in the country illegally who are involved in criminal or gang activity.

But in so doing, he said, he has already stretched his administrative capacity.

At a certain point, he said, he has to enforce the laws on the books even while pushing to change them.

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Obama calls himself the 'champion in chief' of immigration reform