While there has been a steady push in recent months for comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill, there have been a few steps in the states and in localities to limit the extent that local law enforcement participates in immigration enforcement (which has been seen as a federal duty). One of the reasons why deportations have skyrocketed in the Obama administration has to do with the roll out of the Secure Communities program, which allows for the fingerprints of anyone who has been arrested by local police to be checked against federal immigration databases and flagged for removal. Two years ago, I wrote about my experience witnessing local police involving themselves in immigration in one Southern California city.

One of the main reasons why immigration activists want the local police to be out of the immigration enforcement game is that it compromises trust between community members and the police.

To lessen the local police involvement in immigration enforcement, there are a few measures brewing. In California, the TRUST Act is moving through the legislature again. Read about it here.

And in New Orleans, the city council has passed a resolution to limit the detaining of immigrants or suspected immigrants in its jails in part because of the cost to house them.

In addition, some local counties in California are opting out of cooperation in the federal program.

That localities feel the need to lessen involvement in the federal immigration enforcement effort highlights the problems of having local police engage in an activity that has typically been reserved for the feds.

I have a piece on BlogHer explaining how the terrorism issue become a sidebar in the current immigration debate. One thing to keep in mind is that there will always be people who want to commit crime and harm people regardless of country of origin, but if children who are brought to the U.S. are the perpetrators of terrorism, perhaps we, as a society, need to look inward at the factors here in the U.S. that may have influenced the violent acts as well.

This piece also addresses how the current immigration bill will impact women.

Click here to read.

This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out with some new data showing that Latinas are more likely than their black or white peers to have multiple teen pregnancies. Overall, the teen birthrate has been declining.

About one in five teen births are repeat births. For young women between the ages of 15 and 19, the highest percentages of repeat teen births occur in Native American (21.6%) women and in Latinas (20.9%). Non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites follow (20.4%) and (14.8%). One positive data point is that Hispanic teens were more likely to use more effective forms of birth control.

Teen pregnancy has been on the decline in the Latino community; the community has historically had high teen birth rates, which are tied to drop out rates, college completion rates and the cycle of poverty. Experts cite better access to information and contraceptives as being major factors in declining teen pregnancy rates.

The folks over at Latino Decisions came out with a new poll a few weeks ago. Basically, immigration reform is now the most important issue for Latino voters, and the GOP has an opportunity to make gains within the Latino electorate if it is able to take on a larger role in passing immigration reform with a path to citizenship. You can read a quick synopsis of the polling here. In essence, the GOP doesn’t have to win a majority of the Latino vote to be competitive with Democrats again in capturing this growing voter block, but they just need to get back to the high 30 percentage mark again instead of only winning 27 percent as Romney did in November.

For more context on how the GOP can make some gains with Latino voters, check out this NPR interview with Gary Segura of Latino Decisions.

It’s that time of the year again when Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez sends out her annual campy holiday card. This year’s card features the Congresswoman’s second husband, Jack Einwechter. Last year, she also posed with her husband next to the Christmas tree with Gretzky (her deceased cat) in the ornaments. When she was married to Stephen Brixey, he appeared on the cards along with Representative Sanchez.

This card makes light of the fiscal cliff situation currently going on in Washington, D.C.

The cost of producing the card is paid for by campaign funds.

The folks at the Nonprofit Network have put out a documentary that is fully viewable online about the censorship and elimination of the Mexican American studies program at Tucson Unified School District. It gives a pretty good overview of the closing of the Mexican American studies program and documents some of the clashes with local law makers and community members. Check it out here:

For more information about Outlawing Shakespeare: The Battle for the Tucson Mind, click here.

And in related news, TUSD is undergoing hearings to determine how to desegregate its schools.

This week the Latinos in Social Media Annual Conference will convene in Houston where Latino influentials across the internet will convene to network, learn new skills, and share tips about online engagement with the Latino community. This year there will be four tracks focused on business, technology, health and education.

I will be participating in the Technology track, discussing how social media is reshaping elections and influencing the Latino community in a panel on Friday afternoon. The panel’s formal title is: “Social Media-powered Politics: How Social Media is redefining the political game as we know it.” We will be tweeting tips, facts, and information in this panel and in others, so if you are on twitter, please follow the #latism12 hashtag.

Another reason to check out this year’s Latism conference is the involvement of the Adelante Movement, which will feature Sandra Cisneros and Nely Galan. This program aims to empower Latina entrepreneurs.

Another survey was recently released showing that Latino voters may not be as conservative as the conventional wisdom suggests, especially in regards to same sex marriage. This new Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey shows that half of Latinos surveyed support allowing gays and lesbians to marry with one-third of the community being opposed to gay marriage. Data that came out in April of this year from an earlier survey also showed Latino support for gay marriage outpacing that of the general population in the US.

This new Pew survey also revealed a bit more about Latino evangelicals and how they are the slice of the Latino electorate that seems to be most in play in terms of a larger portion of this group having strong support for Mitt Romney.

Check out What’s Faith Got to Do with It? The Role of Religion and the Latino Vote by Maegan Ortiz by clicking here.