President Obama rallied an audience of Latino officials Friday, vowing to fight for them if elected to a second term and wielding his latest immigration policy change as a wedge between him and Republican opponent Mitt Romney. 

The president spoke in Florida to a gathering of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a day after Romney made an appeal for support to the same group. 

The president staunchly defended his administration's recent decision to stop deporting, in most cases, illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. 

"Lifting the shadow of deportation and giving them a reason to hope, that was the right thing to do," Obama told the crowd, to a round of applause. 

Attempting to draw a clear contrast between his approach to illegal immigration and Romney's, Obama went on to suggest that he was taking steps Romney never would.