Michelle Abarca
Attorney, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center
Children's Legal Project

In a time of heated debates about health care, foreclosure, the recession and immigration, it is easy to ignore another sad story. But just one look at the stories we at Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) hear every day puts it all back in perspective.

FIAC champions the rights of immigrants who have few resources and tremendous challenges – unaccompanied children in immigration detention like “Marta,” victims of domestic violence or human trafficking and asylum seekers. Many of our staff are themselves immigrants; 90 percent speak at least two languages.

FIAC is one of the few agencies in the country that provides free representation to immigrant children who enter this country alone each year.

“Marta” is one of these children and is featured in CNN’s Latino in America. Her father abandoned her and later died. When Marta was 7, her mother came to the United States, leaving her behind. Longing to see her mother, Marta left Central America at age 13 and set off for the United States. The journey was grueling.

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A fence separates the United States from Mexico in the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma Sector in San Luis, Arizona.

Rudy Ruiz
Special to CNN

You invent a product. You brand it. You market it like crazy. With a lot of hard work, determination and a little luck, you find yourself with a winner on your hands.

Everybody wants what you've got. They'll pay any price. They'll camp all night outside your store. They'll travel from anywhere - risking their lives, dodging bullets, swimming across troubled waters and climbing barbed-wire fences. People will learn a new language, even leave family and heritage behind, all for a shot at what you've made a fortune selling.

But then, a big problem emerges: A block of stockholders doesn't want to sell the product any more.

Those stockholders are hoarding it, afraid supply is dwindling. They complain it's too costly to manage the crowds and it's getting chaotic in the bargain basement.

So you hire more security guards, build barriers and fences. You award lucrative contracts to surveillance companies, hike prices, downscale production and restrict product benefits. But still, wide-eyed customers think you're the best.

Your efforts backfire. They have the effect of a velvet rope and an oversized bouncer in front of a hot nightclub - the more unattainable, the more exclusive your product seems, the more people want it.

A black market flourishes. Desperate people break and enter. The angry shareholders call it stealing, although customers do their best to pay even while they receive a fraction of the product's benefits.

You blanket the store with guards to keep away the unwanted customers, but they won't take a hint. The same faces keep reappearing at your door.

It turns out the neighboring store is even less welcoming. It's saddled by bad management decisions, low employee morale, and infighting. Some of your neighbor's disgruntled ex-employees are even sneaking into your store, like pirate profiteers, to sell harmful, illegal merchandise to your legitimate customers.

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Ruben Navarrette Jr.
CNN

President Obama has placed the immigration reform community at the back of the bus.

This same president who insists the country can't wait to fix what he calls a broken health care system tells reformers to wait for him to get around to fixing what they consider to be an equally broken immigration system.

The same president who tried to juggle a half dozen major policy initiatives in his first few months in office now seems unsure of his ability to - as he told Univision's Jorge Ramos in an interview last weekend - "solve every problem at once."

And the same president who seems to understand that the longer he waits to accomplish health care reform, the more difficult it will be to get, doesn't seem to understand the same is true with immigration reform.

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Thomas Maier
Special to CNN

With a sign from Dunganstown, Ireland, hanging in his U.S. Capitol office, a reminder of the famine-ravished farm where his ancestors began, Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy always seemed to understand that the Kennedys were perhaps America's greatest immigrant story - overcoming religious, ethnic and cultural barriers to reach once unimaginable heights.

"My brother Jack wrote 'A Nation of Immigrants' in 1958, and his words ring true as clearly today as they did half a century ago," said Ted early last year, a few months before he was struck with a malignant brain tumor that claimed his life Tuesday. "I'm constantly reminded of my immigrant heritage."

Indeed, the Kennedys' vision of "A Nation of Immigrants" - which Ted championed throughout his public career - dramatically transformed today's America, opening the door for millions of new citizens and paving the way for Barack Obama's presidency. It is the Kennedys' most lasting legacy.

John F. Kennedy's idealistic belief in America's dream of opportunity for all was clearly stated in "A Nation of Immigrants," which reflected so much of his family's story as Irish Catholic immigrants.

The essence of this little known, little-studied book became the 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which ended the discriminatory preference given to white Europeans and opened the door to millions from Latin America, Asia, Africa and around the world.

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New citizens take the oath of citizenship during ceremonies in Montebello, California, earlier this year.

Rudy Ruiz
Special to CNN

One of the greatest challenges for minorities in any democracy is that their priorities often differ with those of the majority.

Consequently, even if a minority group does not experience outright tyranny, it can suffer tragic neglect. That's the lingering problem with immigration reform.

Latino leaders have long called for comprehensive immigration reform. During the presidential campaign, it finally seemed destined for reality as candidates sought the crucial Latino vote.

But today, where's immigration reform on the list of priorities?

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President Obama,  met with congressional leaders last Thursday to begin planning major reforms to the immigration system

Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

The advocates of comprehensive immigration reform have a message for their opponents: "Game on!"

They're right. For the first six months of the Obama administration, immigration reform was on the back burner. But Thursday, the issue began making its way to the front of the stove when President Obama met with congressional leaders of both parties to plan a major piece of legislation.

After the meeting, Obama told reporters, "After all the overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue, we've got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now."

One of those in the room was New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, he is expected to write the bill which could be unveiled this fall.

Given what Schumer said last week at a gathering sponsored by the Migration Policy Institute, his legislation will almost certainly combine enhanced border enforcement and earned legalization for undocumented immigrants in the United States. Before the sausage is complete, however, we might also see a requirement that all workers carry a tamper-proof identification card and new criteria for admitting legal immigrants.

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Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more about the DREAM Act and who it may impact on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

A fence separates the United States from Mexico in the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma Sector in San Luis, Arizona.

From the Senate's version of the DREAM Act:

A bill to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to permit States to determine State residency for higher education purposes and to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien students who are long-term United States residents and who entered the United States as children, and for other purposes.

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Editor's Note: Tune in to AC360º at 10pm to find out more about undergraduate students facing hurdles because of their immigrant status and what the DREAM Act could mean for them.

A group of undocumented students interviewed for the story.

Traci Tamura
CNN Senior Producer

The issue of illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico is always a hot button topic. I have produced numerous stories on illegal immigration from all sides and from both sides of the border.

My most recent story that I produced for the AC360° about undocumented students took me back to my college roots – UCLA.

When I came back to campus this go around it was to meet with a group of undocumented students who belong to IDEAS (Improving Dreams Equality Access and Success). We talked to them about how their illegal status affects their quest to get an education.

Just hearing about how they don't qualify for any financial aid, can't get drivers licenses and the impact it has on their lives made me think about my own college experiences.

Some travel for hours by bus just to make an 8am class. When I lived on campus it was still a "struggle" to make it to class on time and all I had to do was walk across campus.

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Juan's parents, Pascual and Maria, made their first plane trip to visit him from Guatemala.

Emma Lacey-Bordeaux
CNN Researcher

Congressman Phil Gingrey represents Georgia’s 11th district - a suburban and rural area which holds mostly conservative views. Two years ago, when I was a student at Georgia State, I interviewed Representative Gingrey for a radio program on the university’s radio station WRAS. The Congressman was once an OBGYN, and some 20 years earlier he had actually delivered a colleague of mine.

Since that time I had not followed the Congressman’s career; until this week, when I looked up from my computer – and there he was on CNN.

This is a politician who makes a big deal of his position against illegal immigration, calling undocumented immigrants a “tremendous strain on Georgia’s hospitals, school systems and social welfare programs…” He lays out 10 principles he will stick to when considering immigration legislation. Here is number ten:

‘Illegal aliens currently in the United States may be afforded a one-time opportunity to leave the country without being prosecuted. Those who do not take advantage of this opportunity will be removed and permanently barred from returning.’

Juan Gonzalez is an undocumented immigrant who is 18-years-old. He came to the United States from Guatemala last year and wound up in Rome, Georgia, part of Rep. Gingrey’s district working as a dishwasher. In November, Gonzalez discovered he had a chronically weak heart. His prognosis was dire. His parents back in Guatemala were desperate to see their son for perhaps the last time. But they were having a great deal of difficulty obtaining the paperwork necessary to come to the United States.

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Editor's Note: Tune in to AC360º at 10pm to find out more about undergraduate students facing hurdles because of their immigrant status and what the DREAM Act could mean for them.

A group of undocumented students interviewed for the story.

Traci Tamura
CNN Senior Producer

The issue of illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico is always a hot button topic. I have produced numerous stories on illegal immigration from all sides and from both sides of the border.

My most recent story that I produced for the Anderson Cooper 360 Show about undocumented students took me back to my college roots – UCLA.

When I came back to campus this go around it was to meet with a group of undocumented students who belong to IDEAS (Improving Dreams Equality Access and Success). We talked to them about how their illegal status affects their quest to get an education.

Just hearing about how they don't qualify for any financial aid, can't get drivers licenses and the impact it has on their lives made me think about my own college experiences.

Some travel for hours by bus just to make an 8am class. When I lived on campus it was still a "struggle" to make it to class on time and all I had to do was walk across campus.

Keep reading