Debate over immigration policy and immigration law has taken on an unprecedented prominence for the American body politic in recent years. The growing clout and numeric prominence of the nation’s Latino community, which now constitutes 12.5 percent of the population, has not gone unnoticed by politicians.’ Indeed, both the Republican and Democratic parties have sought to portray themselves as friendly to Latinos and to issues that resonate with Latino voters, and the parties have expended enormous efforts to heighten their appeal to this segment of the voting population. Given that most Latino voters have relatively recent roots in the United States, immigration is a prominent concern for most of these newer Americans; many theorize that the collapse of the California Republican Party stems from its rejection by Latino voters still infuriated at the party’s support for anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187. Indeed, President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox seemed almost certain to negotiate some type of regularization program for workers illegally present in the United States (or at least undocumented Mexican workers) before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, intervened.