By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

President Barack Obama wasted no time in denouncing Arizona’s hard-nosed anti-immigration law. He called it misguided, irresponsible and a threat to civil liberties. Obama’s right.

The bill is wasteful, unenforceable, and more ominously, virtually a license for police to engage in racial profiling. But it’s also popular in Arizona, and judging from polls and underground sentiment of millions of Americans on immigration, popular with them too.

Arizona officials claim they had to crack down on undocumented immigrants largely because the federal government has stalled and backpedaled countless times on enacting comprehensive immigration reform. This, in effect, dumps the immigration reform issue squarely back in Obama’s lap.

In the coming days, immigration reform leaders, Hispanic activist groups, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus almost certainly will ratchet up their demand and efforts to get Obama working on a reform bill in Congress. The demand comes at the worst time for Obama.

There are some things that present a wedge for immigration foes: Thousands of jobs have been shed, with the official unemployment rate still nudging double digits; African American joblessness is far higher; and low-wage American workers are bearing the brunt of the downturn.

Thus, immigration opponents will again hammer that undocumented workers snatch jobs from needy American workers. The charge has been hotly disputed, but it still touches a raw nerve.

There’s still the loose network of anti-immigration organizations, and the legions of right-wing talk jocks, Tea Party activists and Fox News talking heads who can stir the troops to oppose any reform. The stock attack charge that any immigration reform bill is a de facto reward for breaking the law still ignites anger and passion in many Americans.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer tied her signing the bill into law into another issue that ignites even greater passion and anger: crime. She flatly said the law would help protect her state from crime from Mexico.

The governor cited no evidence to show that immigration has bumped the state’s crime rate up. But then again, she didn’t have to.

The frightening shots of dead bodies that have become regular news features on American TV screens from the warfare between Mexican government forces and drug cartels is more than enough to stir terror in Americans that a wave of illegal immigrants flooding the country will drench America’s streets in blood.

Immigration reform also can’t be separated from partisan politics.

The two special elections slated in May in Hawaii and Pennsylvania are toss ups, and a loss of either of the seats to Republicans would further add to Democrats’ fears that the three hammer blows they suffered in losing a revered Senate seat in Massachusetts and governorships in Virginia and New Jersey were not aberrations.

With November midterm elections fast approaching and the real danger that Democrats could lose big in them, picking a fight that’s bound to be even more contentious and divisive than the health care battle is too risky.

Obama has a major fight on his hands to get a financial reform bill passed. There’s the risk that the concessions he and Senate Democrats made to Republicans to quickly get the bill passed could alienate many liberal and progressive Democrats who want to see the toughest-possible consumer protections in place against the ravages of big banks and financial houses.

They were the driving force behind his election win, and the White House banks on them and passion to help blunt the momentum of Tea Party activists in the fall, and beyond.

Obama gave immigration reform short shrift in his State of the Union speech in January, and this rankled immigration reform backers. They loudly protested that the president reneged on his promise to them to make comprehensive immigration reform a centerpiece of his agenda.

In the months since then, they have hammered at Obama to make good on the promise with the vague hint that, if he doesn’t, more than a few Latino voters may just be tempted to stay home in the fall and beyond.

Arizona may have taken the option of watch-and-wait caution off the White House table. And that puts Obama on the spot.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a political analyst and author of “How Obama Governed,” among other works. His nationally heard talk show is on KTYM-AM 1460 AM Los Angeles, Fridays, 9:30 a.m., and KPFK Pacifica Radio 90.7 Los Angeles, Saturdays, noon, Pacific Standard Time.

Hutchinson is also president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, which has weekly news, discussion and speaker forums. Attendees can come hear and dialogue with community leaders, elected officials and policy makers on Thursdays, 7 p.m., at the Lucy Florence CulturalCenter, 3551 W. 43rd St., Los Angeles. Information: (323) 383-6145.