There were some pretty dramatic headlines in the news in 2007: suicide bombers in Iraq, massacres in Africa, natural disasters in Central America and the Caribbean, flooding in Mexico, shakeups in the White House, political battles all around the globe and a few Hollywood icons’ fall from grace. But the one news story that stands out because of the impact it has had in our country and the lingering effect it will continue to have in the coming year is immigration -- more specifically, the failure of our Congress to enact legislation that would overhaul our broken immigration system and the consequences of its inaction.
Legislators had not one, but two opportunities to approve a comprehensive immigration-reform bill, but failed to do so on both occasions. They let politics get in the way of trying to fix a problem that has escalated into a national crisis. The result is a country divided and a hostile environment for immigrants, undocumented or not.
The failure of the federal government to come up with some kind of immigration reform has led states and municipalities to take the law into their own hands. According to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of Nov. 16, 2007, no fewer than 1,562 pieces of legislation related to immigrants and immigration had been introduced among the 50 state legislatures. Of those, 244 became law in 46 states. Some of them were so harsh, as is the case in Oklahoma, that the Catholic Church has come out to denounce them as inhumane. Dozens of cities also have tried to enact their own immigration laws, covering everything from employment to housing, law enforcement and public benefits.
Although in many cases new laws have been challenged in court and eventually have been declared unconstitutional, there are some that have been approved and are being implemented, forcing people to live in fear, creating an atmosphere of xenophobia and, in many cases, hurting the economy by alienating a much-needed labor force.
We learned a lot from the debate on immigration reform this year -- among other things, that it is not enough for a piece of legislation to have the full support of the president of the United States. President George W. Bush not only supported a comprehensive immigration bill that included border security, employer verification, a guest-worker program and a road to earned legalization for undocumented workers, but lobbied hard to try to get it passed. Unfortunately, his efforts didn’t do much to sway the most conservative members of his own party in Congress.
It’s ironic that we constantly should be asking the presidential candidates how they would deal with the immigration issue and what they would do with the 12 million or so undocumented immigrants living in this country. We now know that unless they have major political capital to invest, their position could end up being irrelevant. Another thing that the failed
immigration-reform effort taught us is that a vocal minority can be much more influential than a silent majority. Throughout 2007, poll after poll showed that an average of six out of 10 voters in this country would support legalization for undocumented immigrants with some kind of restrictions. Yet our elected officials decided to turn a blind eye to this reality.
Because of the impact it has had both in the U.S. and in our neighboring countries, immigration and the failure of our government to deal with it stand in the eyes of many as the story of 2007. As immigration continues to be a hot issue and a determining one in the presidential campaign for the 2008 election, we hope the debate will become more civilized and will help to bring together a divided country.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www
.mariaesalinas.com)
© 2007 by Maria Elena Salinas
Distributed by King Features Syndicate