Barack Obama in Joint interview of Obama and Romney on Univision

On Drugs: We share cross-border drug problem with Mexico

A: What I will be saying to the new President of Mexico when he takes office is that we want to continue cooperation, and we recognize this is a threat on both sides of the border. We obviously generate a lot of demand for drugs in this country, and guns and cash flow south at the same time as drugs flow north.

Q: How many more people have to die?

A: Well, what we need to do is to weaken the grip of these drug cartels, and there are a couple of things we can do. The US can focus on drug treatment and prevention, and helping people deal with addiction, making sure that young people are not getting hooked on drugs. If we can reduce demand, that means less cash flowing into these drug cartels. The other thing that we try to do is to work much more aggressively in preventing the flow of guns and cash down into Mexico. And so interdiction has to work both ways.

On Drugs: Fast & Furious was completely wrongheaded; we've stopped it

A: The Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration. When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned an inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that, in fact, Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable. And the strategy that was pursued, obviously, was completely wrongheaded. Those folks who were responsible have been held accountable.

Q: But if you have nothing to hide then why are you not releasing papers to this?

A: We've released thousands of papers...

Q: But not all of them.

A: The ones that we don't release typically relate to internal communications that were not related to the actual Fast and Furious operation.

On Education: More education funding from early childhood thru Pell grants

A: Some of the work that we've done over the last four years to make sure that the student loan interest rate stays low, expanding Pell grants for millions of students, including millions of Latino students, so that we are seeing the highest college enrollment rate among Latino students in history--all that is going to help to contribute to us being able to deal with the problem of secondary and high school educations by inspiring a whole lot of students to say, I can do that, too; I can achieve that dream. One of the things we know is going to make a big difference is early childhood education. So we've put enormous effort not only in providing additional funding for early childhood education, but also to improve the quality. 46 states have initiated reforms.

On Education: Recovery Act avoided layoffs; now hire more teachers

A: What happened in Chicago was of concern, and we're glad that it finally got resolved. But you're going to see school districts dealing with this issue because part of what has happened is a lot of teacher layoffs. Part of what the Recovery Act was all about--was to help states and local communities not lay off teachers. Unfortunately, though, we've still seen a lot of school districts lay off teachers. That has an impact on the students themselves because when you have larger classes, it's harder to provide the individualized attention on those kids, especially at the younger grades. And what we say to school districts all across the country is, we will provide you more help as long as you're being held accountable.

On Foreign Policy: Partner with Arab Spring countries to work toward democracy

All these issues are ones that the region is going to wrestle with. The one thing we can't do is withdraw from the region, because the US continues to be the one indispensable nation. And even countries where the US is criticized, they still want our leadership. And so we're going to continue to work in these regions.

On Homeland Security: Remain vigilant & focus forcefully on groups like al Qaeda

A: Well, we're still doing an investigation. The natural protests that arose were used as an excuse by extremists to harm US interests. We have to remain vigilant. Look, when I came into office I said I would end the war in Iraq--and I did. I said that we would begin transitioning in Afghanistan. But what I also said was we're going to have to focus narrowly and forcefully on groups like al Qaeda. Those forces have not gone away. We've decimated al Qaeda's top leadership in the border regions around Pakistan, but in Yemen, in Libya--increasingly in places like Syria-- what you see is these elements that don't have the same capacity that a bin Laden or core al Qaeda had, but can still cause a lot of damage, and we've got to make sure that we remain vigilant and are focused on preventing them from doing us any harm.

On Immigration: I promised reform in 2009, but economy took priority

Source: Obama-Romney interviews by Univision Noticias (Spanish News) Sep 19, 2012

On Immigration: Still supports comprehensive reform and the DREAM Act

A: There's the thinking that the President is somebody who is all powerful and can get everything done. In our system of government, I am the head of the executive branch. I'm not the head of the legislature; I'm not the head of the judiciary. We have to have cooperation from all these sources in order to get something done. And so I take responsibility for the fact that we didn't get it done, but I did not make a promise that I would get everything done, 100%, when I was elected. What is relevant is that I have never wavered in my support of comprehensive immigration reform. We did put forward a DREAM Act that was passed in the House, got the overwhelming majority of support from Democrats in the Senate, and was blocked by the Republican Party. We now are confronted with a choice between two candidates in which I am committed to the DREAM Act, and [Romney] said he would veto the DREAM Act.

On Immigration: Focus deportations on criminals and those without US roots

A: We focus our enforcement on people who genuinely pose a threat to our communities, not to hardworking families who are minding their own business and oftentimes have members of their family who are US citizens. We don't have the capacity to enforce across the board. So more than half of our enforcement now is directed at people with criminal records. Of the remaining half, about 2/3 are people who are apprehended close to the border, so these are not people who have longstanding roots in our community. And what we've tried to do then is focus our attention on real threats, and make sure that families are not the targets.

On Tax Reform: 47% who don't pay income tax pay many other taxes

A: Are there people who abuse the system? Yes, both at the bottom and at the top--because there are a whole bunch of millionaires who aren't paying taxes at all either. But when you look statistically, it turns out that even if people aren't paying income taxes, they're paying payroll taxes. They're paying gas taxes. They're paying sales taxes. They're paying state & local taxes. So the fact of the matter is that the few people who are not paying income taxes are either paying a lot of taxes because they're working every day but they just don't make enough money overall to pay income tax; or alternatively, they're senior citizens or they're students or they're disabled; or, in some cases, they're veterans or soldiers who are fighting for us right now overseas--they don't pay an income tax. Americans work hard, and if they're not working right now, they want to get to work. And that's what my economic plan is designed to do.

On War & Peace: Libyan people appreciate that America liberated them

A: We mourn the loss of the Americans who were killed in Benghazi. But that's not representative of the attitudes of the Libyan people towards America, because they understand because of the incredible work that our diplomats did as well as our men and women in uniform, we liberated that country from a dictator who had terrorized them for 40 years. We've seen this in the past, where there is an offensive video or cartoon directed at the prophet Muhammad. And this is used as an excuse to carry out inexcusable violent acts. We told the [Libyan & other] leaders, that although we had nothing to do with the video, we find it offensive, it's not representative of America's views, but we will not tolerate violence, and we will bring those who carried out these events to justice.

On Welfare & Poverty: People want a hand up, not a handout

A: The day I was elected, I said 47% of the people didn't vote for me, but I've heard your voices and I'm going to work just as hard for you as I did for those who did vote for me. That's how you have to operate as a President. But I will say this. When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot. Their problem is not that they're not working hard enough, or they don't want to work, or they're being taxed too little, or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks. We've gone through a challenging time. People want a hand up, not a handout. Are there people who abuse the system? Yes, both at the bottom and at the top.