Immigration Debate

Signaling another partisan fight over immigration enforcement after next week's midterm election, all seven Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee have signed a letter asking the Department of Homeland Security how much money it needs to deport every illegal immigrant the government encounters. The request came in an Oct. 21 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and asks her to "detail exactly how much funding" would be needed "to ensure that enforcement of the law occurs consistently for every illegal alien encountered and apprehended.

Dying of thirst and stripped to their underwear, the headstrong Latina and the immigrant-bashing talk-radio host are staggering together through the northern Mexican desert. How they got there is a story of karmic comeuppance involving a brutal kidnapping, a vicious hate crime, a romantic betrayal and the unappeased ghosts of guilt and shame that haunt both characters. Like trails in a dusty landscape, those narrative lines converge in Josefina Lopez's two-act satirical drama "Detained in the Desert," which opens Friday at the tiny Casa 0101 theater in Boyle Heights.

Stephen Colbert's "testimony" before Congress last week was a clear sign that ironic rot (if you've got a better term, let me know) is sinking into the foundation of our political system. Irony or post-irony or ironic post-whatever has been metastasizing through the culture for decades. The most famous example was "Seinfeld," a hilarious show that was famously "about nothing" and much-derided by earnest writers on the left and right for its detached mockery of any deeply held principle or conviction.

Latinos now view immigration as their leading concern along with the economy in what activists say is a major shift most likely driven by controversy over Arizona's tough law against illegal immigrants. Nearly a third of Latinos also believe that racism and prejudice are the central issue in the immigration debate, over national security, job competition and costs of public services for illegal immigrants, according to a national survey released Wednesday. The poll of 504 Latinos, stratified by region, gender, age, foreign-born status and other factors, was conducted by LatinoMetrics from May 26 to June 8 for the Hispanic Federation and the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC.

In his first major speech on the issue since taking office, President Obama said Thursday that the U.S. immigration system "offends our most basic American values" and blamed Republican opposition for thwarting crucially needed change. It was the third time in as many days that Obama singled out Republicans as an obstructionist force, blaming them in his earlier appearances for defending oil giant BP in the aftermath of the Gulf Coast oil spill and for opposing stronger financial regulatory legislation.

The Republican governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, calls her state "the gateway to America for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and crime." She blames the federal government for failing to secure the border with Mexico. Her Democratic predecessor, Janet Napolitano, now the country's Homeland Security secretary, counters that the Southwestern border "is as secure now as it has ever been." The dispute over just how much border security is enough looms as the biggest impediment to any attempt by the Obama administration and Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

Tom Campbell attacked Carly Fiorina for her sparse voting record and questioned her party loyalty. Chuck DeVore pounded Fiorina for supporting a proposition that would have made it easier to pass school bonds. Fiorina chided Campbell for backing tax increases to help balance the state's budget. That was how it went Tuesday during a freewheeling debate among the three Republican candidates vying to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer. With sunbathers catching rays at a pool a few steps away, the trio sparred in a Costa Mesa hotel meeting room over taxes, immigration and who would be Boxer's toughest opponent this fall.

First Lady Michelle Obama came face-to-face with the sometimes-uncomfortable repercussions of her husband's immigration enforcement policies Wednesday when a second-grader voiced her worries that her mother might be deported. It happened as Mrs. Obama toured an elementary school in the Washington, D.C., area with Margarita Zavala, the first lady of Mexico, two hours before President Obama renewed his call for comprehensive immigration reform. At one point, Mrs. Obama took questions from a dozen second-grade students who sat in a small circle on the gymnasium floor at the New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. "My mom said … Barack Obama is going to take away everybody that doesn't have papers," one girl told the first lady.

On Saturday, I wrote about the debate among elderly members of an African American bridge club over whether they should attend a bridge tournament next week in Phoenix. Some thought the club should boycott, because Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants smacks of familiar discrimination. Others applauded Arizona's effort and think California ought to take a lesson. And some just wanted to take a vacation without somebody making a federal case of it. The column sparked a lively — and mostly civil — public debate on The Times' website.

It's about the law Re "Protesters nationwide call for immigration overhaul," May 2 Unlike the mostly corrupt societies in the world today (including Mexico), American society is rooted in a system of enforceable laws, which is what creates and guarantees the freedom and opportunities that all immigrants — both legal and illegal — seek here. It is disturbing that the mayor of America's second-largest city and one of its main religious leaders have publicly aligned themselves with millions of people who have broken the law to be here.