Illegal immigration is a make-or-break issue for the 2008 campaign in border states like New Mexico.
For years, Congress has battled back and forth on the issue. But no senator, president or congressman can understand the importance of the issue better than people who have spent their lives wanting to become citizens, said Monica Schapiro, a 25-year-old from Ecuador.
"The argument I have against immigration is the time frame," she said. "They make you wait years and years and years."
Schapiro was 14 years old when she came to the U.S. She wasn't able to apply for citizenship until she was 21, because her mother registered Schapiro before she applied for citizenship herself - a mistake that delayed Schapiro's ability to become a citizen by several years.
"I know they're behind in years of paperwork, because when they created Homeland Security and they put all the agencies together and all that - it's kind of messed up now," she said.
States attempt a change
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A 2007 Homeland Security report estimated that 11.6 million undocumented immigrants lived in the U.S. as of January 2006. About 4.2 million immigrants entered the U.S. since the year 2000, and 1.3 million came between 2004 and 2005, according to the report.
After years of indecision, several states have created their own immigration legislation.
Christine Marie Sierra, professor of political science at UNM, said New Mexico is one of a handful of states to pass immigration legislation.
"It is primarily up to the Congress to pass immigration law that supersedes or is an
overlay to any state-to-state policy," she said. "But in the absence of federal law - like the failure of immigration reform over the last year or over the last number of years - states have more and more attempted to initiate and pass legislation that is directly related to immigration and immigrants within their borders."
In 2000, New Mexico's immigrant population, legal and illegal, was 149,606, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. That number grew to 176,090 in 2006.
Sierra said New Mexico is one of few states to issue driver's licenses to people with Matricula Consular ID cards, which are issued to Mexican nationals living in the U.S.
"That has been a source of friction, particularly when the Republicans were in the majority, and certain states - states like ours - have a different point of view," she said. "So, you've got a lot of conflict, and in the opposite direction, too. You've got some states that want to be quite restrictive in their policy towards immigrants, including trying to stop the education of undocumented immigrants in public schools."
In 2007, Oklahoma legislators passed a law that bars illegal immigrants from receiving state assistance and holding jobs. The law also made harboring or transporting illegal immigrants a felony.
It is now common to see cases where the issue has gone from federal government legislation to that of local communities, Sierra said.
"We're seeing different policies being expressed between the levels of government," she said. "So, in that sense - as political scientists call it - these are issues of federalism: Which level of government is actually going to implement the law regarding immigrants?"
Building a wall
Towns along the U.S.-Mexico border have become gateways to the U.S. for illegal immigrants, Sierra said. And some citizens have taken patrolling the border into their own hands.
Citizens of Eagle Pass, Texas, have built a wall along the border to keep immigrants from crossing, she said.
"That border town is protesting the building of a more fortified structure," she said.
Doug Mosier, public affairs officer in El Paso, said the construction of a 54-mile wall from El Paso to Fort Hancock, Texas has brought on a strong response from surrounding communities.
"People have the misconception that it will be a large and continuous wall along the 2,000 mile border, and that's not the case at all," he said. "There will be some sections that will have infrastructure that will vary from reinforced chain-link fencing and those sorts of barriers. It will depend on the topography from each given area."
Mosier said the Congress-approved wall will assist Border Patrol agents with the challenges of managing the constant influx of immigrants.
"The most recent and immediate challenge has been - because we have been able to bolster border security - we are starting to see acts of retaliation by smuggling organizations who are becoming more aggressive and assaulting Border Patrol agents more than ever before," he said. "Probably not since the days of prohibition has the job of a U.S. Border Patrol agent been more dangerous."
