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Nation & World


Immigration policy: From tepid to hot-button issue


By Janet Hook - Los Angeles Times

[quote]WASHINGTON – For most of this year, immigration reform looked like an issue whose time had finally come, with the unusual confluence of a Republican president, Democratic Congress and public all demanding a solution.

But the spectacular collapse of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration legislation last week demonstrated that the seemingly auspicious political environment was no match for an issue that was just too hot to handle.

The bill’s demise relegates illegal immigration to a backlog of national problems – such as Social Security’s insolvency and the federal budget deficit – that the president and Congress have not been able to solve.

“It smells an awful lot like Social Security,â€