Gabriel Arana on how the climate for immigration reform has changed since 2006:
Last Sunday, 200,000 immigrant-rights protesters shared the National Mall with a tea-party crowd that shouted racial epithets and spat at members of Congress. Unsurprisingly, the media focused on the histrionics of the tea partiers, but Sunday's immigration demonstration was an important manifestation of the movement's building impatience. In its enthusiasm and optics -- legal and undocumented immigrants chanting "Sí se puede," singing folk songs, and waving both American and Mexican flags -- the demonstration was reminiscent of the immigration protests in 2006.
Then, as now, immigration-rights advocates were banking on a president's campaign promise to reform the broken immigration system. But the parallel largely ends there. Without wanting to paint too rosy a picture of how the immigration-reform fight played out in 2006, at the very least it featured Republicans and Democrats coming together on legislation. The almost comical juxtaposition of the tea partiers and immigrant-rights demonstrations underscores a basic difference between 2006 and now: America has become a more hostile place for immigrants.
