Fox News: Republican Resurgence Likely to Derail Immigration Reform

Why the recent resurgence of interest in immigration reform? I wonder if it is because the difficult economy has caused people to find something/someone to blame for the situation. Just like how insecurity creates exclusionary behavior among adolescents, economic insecurity results in nationalistic xenophobia.

"Democrats tried to pounce on Republicans for their support of Arizona's controversial law that clamped down on illegal immigrants and their opposition to birthright citizenship and earned-citizenship proposals."

The Arizona Law hit a little close to home for me. My parents are (legal) immigrants to this country, and I don't see why they should be required to carry their "papers" with them to prove their citizenship. It is already easy enough to feel like isolated in a new community/culture/language without the government imposing rules to further divide people. I am also in the opinion that birthright citizenship is an important concept for the American identity; it emphasizes the ideology that Americans were all immigrants at some point, but came together to be a nation despite many different backgrounds. Birthright citizenship, to me, symbolizes diversity, new hope, and togetherness. And honestly, how much of the immigration problem is due to the fact illegal immigrants are having children who are being born American citizens? I'd like to see some statistics on that.

And, yes, I am reading Fox News.

Republican Resurgence Likely to Derail Immigration Reform