Border & Immigration

Fronteras: Remember those hard-shelled, spicy ground beef tacos that populated American kitchens a few decades ago? That's not the taco of today. Today it's grilled fish, kosher beef, Korean barbeque and fried eggs. We’re talking all things taco: From the evolution of the taco and how breakfast tacos are a morning staple close to the heart in South Texas, to Kosher tacos and tacos in the Navajo Nation.

Fronteras: Excessive alcohol consumption cost United States taxpayers more than $220 billion in 2006. Several hundred people living on the banks of the Tijuana river canal were evicted. What are they planning to do now? Immigrant families in the U.S. with mixed status wonder about the fate of immigration reform now that Congress is in recess. One of Mexico’s most isolated indigenous groups is fighting logging in old-growth forests. Also, hear how a civil rights giant is now a comic book hero.

Fronteras: Any new immigration bill will include some measure of increased border surveillance, which doesn't sit well with people already fed up with federal scrutiny. As members of Congress begin their August break, many will be getting an earful from constituents about immigration reform. A college in Southern Nevada is struggling to meet the needs of its growing Latino student body. Part of the Navajo Nation has been slow to rebuild after a development freeze, which is affecting some of the poorest people on the reservation.

A report released this week by Nielsen titled Latina Powershift says that Latinas are an economic power and may define the next American generation.

The report says U.S. Hispanic women have recently and rapidly surfaced as prominent contributors to the educational, economic, and cultural wellbeing of not only their own ethnicity, but of American society and the consumer marketplace.

A new U.S. Census report shows a growing number of U.S. residents speak a language at home other than English as the level of English proficiency in the nation holds steady.

The report, Language Use in the United States: 2011, says the percentage of people speaking a non-English language increased from 19.7 percent in 2007 to 20.8 percent in 2011. 58 percent of U.S. residents that speak a foreign language at home also speak English very well.

Fronteras: How environmental concerns stack up against border security as Congress considers adding more fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the outdoor jail that has become a symbol of the law enforcement style of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The Hopi Nation in northern Arizona is in the middle of what advocates call a domestic violence epidemic. Also, why the chilies in your favorite hot sauce may give you more of a kick than you bargained for.

A lawsuit filed by ten immigration agents challenging President Obama’s Deferred Action policy has been dismissed in federal court.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents filed the suit last year.  They said deferred action forced them to violate federal law by not sending known immigrants into deportation proceedings.

Government attorneys argued the Texas federal court did not have jurisdiction over the case. Instead, they said the case could be heard by another court reserved for disputes among federal employees.

Bloomberg News is reporting that when House lawmakers leave Washington this week for a five week break they’ll be buttonholed at public events — even hounded at the grocery store — by advocates for and against immigration reform.

Beefing up border security is one flashpoint.

The Senate has passed a $46 billion plan to double the number of agents on the U.S.-Mexico border, and add more cameras, sensors, drones and fencing.

Big Money often gets what it wants in Washington. But not always.

In few policy debates is that more true than in the proposed overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.

The big donors and corporate leaders of the Republican establishment mostly favor remaking U.S. immigration laws to give those now here illegally an eventual door to citizenship and to increase the annual quota for guest workers.