As the Bush administration winds down and the Obama administration ramps up, immigration policy is right where it was at the start of the Bush administration: an unfulfilled promise, many Hispanic advocacy groups and immigration policy researchers say.

“It’s been disappointing,” says Dr. Michele Waslin, a senior policy analyst with the Immigration Policy Center. “President Bush had spoken very strongly about the need for immigration reform. He came from Texas. He really understood the need for immigration reform. But, unfortunately, that fell apart in Congress.’

The failure to pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the spring of 2007 is atop most advocates’ minds as they prepare for a new administration that has made the same campaign vow: to pass an immigration bill to help many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country earn a path to legal status.

Many acknowledge it will be difficult for Obama to achieve — even more so as he grapples with the nation’s crumbling economy — but they plan to demand it anyway.

A coalition of immigrant advocates called the Fair Immigration Reform Movement is already planning a mass demonstration on the mall on Obama’s second day in office, Jan. 21.

As the groups look ahead to the next administration, the current one is touting what it believes have been signs of success in its approach to immigration: in enforcement as well as naturalizations.

Since a far-reaching immigration bill failed to clear Congress last year, the Bush administration posted record numbers of deportations of undocumented immigrants: almost 290,000 in the 2007 budget year and 350,000 more in the budget year that ended in September.

“We are seeing the kinds of results that the country hasn’t seen for many years,” Michael Chertoff, Bush’s Homeland Security secretary, said in a speech last month.

He quickly added that tough enforcement of immigration laws must continue before a comprehensive immigration bill could gain public support.