Immigration advocates have attacked President Brack Obama's decision to delay executive action on immigration until after the November elections. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, remains optimistic that this delay may prove more fruitful for those in favor of immigration reform.

On Monday, Pelosi was in Salt Lake City to receive the Excellence in Leadership award from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (she is the first non-Hispanic to receive the award). While there, she told NBC News that she is "respectful of the disappointment" that Latinos have expressed in response to Obama's decision.

Pelosi still has her expectations set "very high," however, and is "absolutely certain" that Obama will evoke change before 2014 ends.

"He said he's going to do it better and that's what I'm optimistic about," Pelosi said. "What he said was he wanted to do it right, and so I think doing right means doing as much as possible."

Some Latinos have threatened to not vote in the upcoming elections in order to show politicians their discontent with their handling of immigration.

Pelosi argued that skipping Election Day is not the answer.

"They speak in this election, they will see results from the Republicans, but if they sit home, they won't," she said. "The Republicans will say, 'We had no price to pay for our negligent policy toward immigrants' -- not only negligent, negative."

In an interview with Huffington Post, the California Democrat also pointed the finger at the Republican Party.

"I think that the anger is not placed in the right direction, and Republicans get off the hook," she said. "They did nothing and people are picketing the president. I mean, [Republicans] don't pay a price for that? ... Understand this, the Republicans had the power to pass a law and they didn't. You want to make a difference? Go sit in front of the Republican National Committee."

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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