WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a wish list, not a to-do list.

President Barack Obama laid out an array of plans in his State of the Union speech as if his hands weren’t so tied by political realities. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies — something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today’s divided Congress, much less in this election year.

And there was more recycling, in an even more forbidding climate than when the ideas were new: He pushed for an immigration overhaul that he couldn’t get past Democrats, permanent college tuition tax credits that he asked for a year ago, and familiar discouragements for companies that move overseas.

A look at Obama’s rhetoric Tuesday night and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances...

The explosive issue of immigration is poised to creep back into the Republican primary battle as the candidates prepare to barnstorm South Carolina, one of a handful of states being sued by the federal government for their illegal immigration crackdowns.

While the issue played second fiddle to concerns like jobs and foreign policy in the prior two contests, voters in South Carolina are likely more attuned, given the high-profile lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

"That's very much an important issue in South Carolina," said Van Hipp Jr., former chairman of the South Carolina GOP and current chairman of the advocacy group Americans for Securing the Border.

Mitt Romney is charging into the state with arguably the most aggressive message, praising the state's immigration law while trumpeting his own bona fides on the issue.

President Obama has taken to claiming at recent political rallies and fundraisers that he has fulfilled 60 percent of his campaign promises from 2008, but the scorecard of an independent arbiter suggests that Mr. Obama is grading himself on a generous curve.

The watchdog organization PolitiFact.com, which evaluates the veracity of politicians’ statements, has tracked 506 specific promises Mr. Obama made during his victorious presidential campaign three years ago and concluded that he has fulfilled 151, or 30 percent. Add the campaign pledges on which Mr.

Democrats and Republicans are clashing in state capitals across the country as GOP-controlled legislatures push proposals to tighten voting requirements -- a move prominent critics have decried as a throwback to Jim Crow laws.

The proposals include measures in nearly three-dozen states to either require voters to show ID before casting their ballots or strengthen existing voter ID laws. Other states have moved to tighten the window for early voting and put new restrictions on whether and when convicted felons can vote.

The proposals are not attracting anywhere near as much attention as state efforts to strengthen immigration laws, cut back on union benefits and balance budgets, but Democrats in recent weeks have launched somewhat of a campaign against them at the national level. They claim Republicans are trying to skew the next election, while limiting the right to vote in the process...

A pro-family activist doesn't think the U.S. attorney general should be pandering to homosexuals while deciding whether illegal aliens should be allowed to remain in the country.

The case involves foreigner Paul Wilson Dorman, who has been living illegally in New Jersey with another homosexual for a number of years. He has been ordered to return to his native Ireland. But Attorney General Eric Holder recently ordered a halt to the deportation, as he suggests Dorman's relationship might qualify him as a "spouse" under a statute known as the Immigration and Nationality Act.

But Peter LaBarbera, founder and president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) believes "this shows the lawlessness of the Obama administration"...

President Obama will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday to lay out a blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform and attempt to restart the debate on an issue he spoke passionately about as a candidate but has made little headway on during his presidency.

In a speech in El Paso, Texas, Obama will make the case that his administration has made significant progress on border security over the last two years, answering comprehensive reform opponents' preliminary objections to tackling reform legislatively.

The Obama administration has doubled the number of patrol agents along the border and deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year - facts that the president will argue underscore that the conditions are right for a serious debate on overhauling the nation's immigration policy, administration officials said. The president will also argue that current immigration laws are keeping innovative thinkers and skilled workers from contributing to the U.S. economy...

The Obama administration has put on hold immigration cases involving married gay couples following the decision to drop its defense of the federal law banning same-sex marriage.

The move means a foreign national married to a U.S. citizen of the same sex would not automatically be denied immigration benefits. One immigration lawyer said the decision could also give those facing deportation a reprieve.

"They would not be deportable and they would be eligible for work authorization," said Christopher Nugent, a longtime immigration attorney who also works on immigration matters with the American Bar Association...

A series of new administration memos have effectively created a backdoor amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, Senate Republicans charged Tuesday in a letter demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explain the policies.

Ms. Napolitano has said her department is trying to focus resources on illegal immigrants with long criminal records, but the letter, signed by all seven Republicans on the Senate committee that oversees immigration, said it appears that the administration is instead trying to carve out categories of illegal immigrants that won't be deported at all.

Indeed, the latest statistics show that the administration has dramatically stepped up removals of convicted criminal immigrants, deporting 51,981 more than last year, an increase of 42 percent, but deportation of other immigrants is down even more, dropping by 53,934 through August...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he intends to bring the DREAM Act as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill expected to be taken up by the Senate next week. He said Congress is unable to pass comprehensive immigration reform because Republicans who supported it such legislation during the last session “left us.”

“I think it’s really important that we move forward on this legislation I’ve tried to work on," Reid said at a news conference on Tuesday. "I know we can’t do comprehensive immigration reform. I’ve tried to, I’ve tried so very, very hard. I’ve tried different iterations of this, but those Republicans we had in the last Congress have left us,” Reid said at the Capitol Hill news conference...

Democratic governors expressed "grave" concerns to White House officials this weekend about the Obama administration's suit against Arizona's new immigration law, warning it could cost the party in crucial elections this fall, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

The closed-door meeting took place at the National Governors Association in Boston on Saturday, according to two unnamed governors who spoke to the Times.

"Universally the governors are saying, 'We've got to talk about jobs, and all of a sudden we have immigration going on,'" Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, was quoted as saying. "It is such a toxic subject, such an important time for Democrats"...