Liberal activists and lawmakers say they want more forceful action from the president to create jobs and curb the pollutants that contribute to global warming, in addition to doing more to rein in government surveillance.

Some are also unhappy about the compromises being made to pass an immigration bill moving through the Senate, pointing to proposals they say would “militarize” the southern border as the price for building political support in the Senate for providing a path to citizenship for people living in the U.S. illegally.

“It’s not just one thing here or another thing there,” said Arshad Hasan, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal political action committee. “There’s a general sense of frustration among progressives.” He said Mr. Obama should do more to “have the Republicans come part way over to us. We’ve been doing a lot of walking over to them.”

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, an antipoverty and immigrant-rights group, said: “We are still awaiting from the president and Democrats in Congress a bold enough economic agenda to deal with the massive crisis in the country, and that has not been forthcoming.”