Barely 24 hours after the Senate shelved trying to reform the immigration system, small-town America is back implementing their own reforms.

The latest case is in Waukegan, Illinois where Mayor Richard Hyde and city aldermen have decided to submit an application to Homeland Security to empower their local police force to identify and retain undocumented immigrants.

Waukegan police said 5,000 or so people were outside Holy Family Catholic Church while a meeting was going on inside in which Waukegan Mayor Richard Hyde addressed questions on how the city will handle illegal immigrants. (Photos by Vincent Pierri/Daily Herald)

The story itself is nothing new except that in this case the local priest is offering his support of the measure.

1. Comprehensive immigration reform is dead.

2. Giving equal educational opportunities to children of color is now a footnote in our nation's history.

When it came to the immigration bill, hopes were not high, but there were slivers of it by all who advocate for the fair and humane treatment of undocumented immigrants, that this time the immigration bill would receive the 60 votes needed to make it a reality.

As you know by now, only 45 senators voted to end the debate.

Watching C-Span, I just heard Texas Senator John Cornyn take the podium and assure everyone that he will continue to work on this bill "in good faith."

Ironic, since it was his so-called poison pill amendments that doomed the bill in the first round.

Homeland Security is going on with its plan to construct a double-row steel fence through the city of Laredo, Texas and over 153 miles along the Texas-Mexico border.

According to Homeland Security, and Congress, the American people want this barrier between Mexico and US. But it's the American people in Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, etc. that think such a fence is good.

The majority of American people who actually live along this border think it's a bad, bad idea.

Not just because Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary, promised to keep border residents in the loop as to when and where the fence would be built - he didn't — but because such a fence would harm the special relationships that border communities have with one another.

Round II of the immigration debate has begun in the Senate.

Already the National Council of La Raza is emailing alerts out detailing the amendments that the Senate will vote on, and which ones we should encourage our Senators to either support or oppose.

But one thing is clear — any new immigration reform bill must include a provision on making the detention procedure as transparent as possible.

Earlier this month, Univision sent a letter to all of the presidential candidates inviting them to come on down to the land of sandy beaches and palm trees and while soaking up the sun, soak up some stage lights too while participating in the network's first Spanish-language debate.

Of course, the only two who jumped at the chance to flex their linguistic advanage were New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd. Both who are fluent Spanish-speakers — Richardson by birth and Dodd by virtue of the Peace Corps.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson

Everybody else has hung back trying to figure out how to say "I don't want to embarrass myself" in Spanish. (Hint: don't use the word embarazada. Believe me, it doesn't mean embarrassed.)

Advocates for comprehensive immigration reform are going to have to light a few more holy candles and pray to their favorite patron saints if they want to see the Senate bring back the bill for debate.

It seems several Republican senators are already making it known that they have no intention of supplying their votes for the needed 60 votes required to resurrect the bill.

Ironically, two of those senators who still don't understand the role the current 12 million undocumented immigrants have in our economy and local communities, hail from Texas - a state that is second only to California in being called home by undocumented immigrants.

The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame is not short on worthy nominees for their annual Career Achievement awards.

So, it's puzzling why they would include syndicated radio host Neal Boortz in light of his decidedly anti-Hispanic (immigrant) remarks.

Last Latina Lista checked, Georgia is home to almost half a million Latinos (435,227 according to a 2000 Census report). A good portion of those are undocumented but they are keeping the Georgia economy competitive by supplying some much needed labor.

Yet, that factual tidbit doesn't seem to matter to the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame organizers.

It is called Tent City and it is the largest immigrant detention facility in the United States.

Found in Raymondville, Texas, the detention camp houses mostly undocumented immigrants from El Salvador, and according to peace activist Elizabeth Garcia, the people are not being treated humanely.

Congress has had a change of heart and has now put immigration reform back on to the table for debate.

It remains to be seen if it will stumble again in the Senate or actually make its way to the House of Representatives.

But one thing is clear, the public is getting tired of all the talk about immigration reform but not doing anything constructive about it.

This week in San Jose, California, hundreds of Hispanic journalists are gathered to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Hispanic media is as complex as the Hispanic community — in other words, we're not all the same. Some print appears in English only, others just Spanish. There are other publications that are bilingual.

The same goes for broadcast: English or Spanish.

Yet, all Hispanic media share a pride in our ancestral tongue regardless of our fluency and our news delivery preference.

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger stuns the NAHJ conference attendees
(Source: NAHJ Digital)

So, you can imagine the stunned silence from the audience when special conference guest, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said out loud that if immigrants really wanted to learn English — they should stop listening to Spanish-language media.

Uhhh, no. That's a bad idea and there's a very simple reason why.

Today, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Eddie Sotelo, better known to his legions of Spanish-speaking fans as Piolin, delivered one million letters to the steps of Congress today from immigrants and citizens across the country who don't want the Senate to postpone the debate on immigration reform any longer.

Boxes containing one million letters in support of immigration reform.
(Source: statesman.com)

Throughout this debate on immigration reform, congresservants have been chided for their lack of will to get things done.

Well, where Congress lacks the will, the Latino community is making up for it tenfold.

This week's commentary by Lou Dobbs is titled "Give it a Rest, Mr. President."

(CNN's Lou Dobbs)

Funny, but that 's what a group of Latinos are telling CNN about allowing Dobbs to spew his opinions against immigration reform and undocumented immigrants, without giving equal time to the other side of the immigration debate.

This week, the state of Arkansas became the latest state to announce that some of their police agencies were going to apply for federal authority to detain undocumented immigrants who are arrested for other crimes. The Arkansas police want to help federal agents in deporting the undocumented.

So for a violation as minor as jaywalking, not having your seat belt buckled or even a taillight out, police while pulling over people can now target immigrants, aka Hispanics, and hold them in custody until federal agents arrive.

After last week's Senate's defeat of allowing the immigration bill to move out of the debate phase, some readers of Latina Lista wondered why we should care that it was defeated since it was a bad bill anyway.

The answer is simple: the initial bill was not great but it was workable and a lot closer to being molded into something that could have helped undocumented immigrants — until a handful of key Republicans made it their mission last week to not just derail the bill but declare war on it by creating amendments that were so vicious in nature that it stripped the bill of any of its (conservative) compassion or rationality.

The actions of these few Republican senators warrants that their Hispanic constituents examine whether or not their particular senator represents ALL constituents or is playing favorites to the exclusion of others.

The defeat of yesterday's vote on moving forward with the immigration reform bill in the Senate was a huge disappointment for anyone who is tired of the rhetoric and wants to get on with the business of living.

Critics may think that the longer the bill is not passed, the longer undocumented Hispanics will suffer hardships to the point of being driven out of their homes.

The only problem is that the longer the bill sits in limbo, the longer Hispanics who are citizens are suffering.

With only a five vote difference against cloture in today's final vote, the Senate has failed in not only coming together to reach a consensus to stop the grandstanding and roadblocking of what has been called The Grand Compromise, better known as the immigration reform bill, but they have prolonged the tremors rippling across this nation, to the point that it's only a matter of time before the fissures that have already developed will run so deep and so wide that there won't be any way to bridge the opposing sides.

From all news accounts, the bill designed to fix our "broken immigration system" narrowly missed losing one of its key components of being an effective bill — addressing the humanitarian reality of the undocumented immigrants.

The missile sent to blow apart the current bill under debate was launched by Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn. Cornryn wanted the Senate to approve an amendment to the bill that would have permanently barred all convicted felons.

Or so he says in the official press release issued by his office.

The more it looks like the Senate is making headway in crafting an immigration reform bill, the more small towns across America want to put their own individual stamp of authority on immigration reform — by trying to force an issue that was long ago recognized as a non-issue — making English the official language.

The 2008 Presidential race has officially begun.

There was no clearer indication of this than in last night's CNN-sponsored televised debate among the 8 declared Democratic hopefuls running for the Presidency.

Tomorrow night, it will be the Republican candidates' turns.

In the meantime, the inevitable push to "get out the Hispanic vote" has begun in full force as well. But it's almost laughable to hear Republican party leaders say they want the Hispanic vote when just a quick look at the roster of declared candidates already reveals this party is out of touch with reality on several fronts .

It took:

1 man
2 transatlantic flights
5 countries visited
80 people exposed

to showcase how unequal security enforcement at the US-Canadian border is compared to the US-Mexican border.