“I’m totally confused now,” wrote a government official in one of thousands of internal e-mails released last week on the subject of Secure Communities, the federal program enlisting state and local police in the crackdown on illegal immigrants.

President Obama hasn\'t broken his promise to seek immigration reform, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Sunday in defense of the president. Pelosi said that Republicans were to blame for the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and, barring that, the DREAM Act.

Newly-elected Governor Susana Martinez, a Republican who ran on a promise to get tough on illegal immigration, this week added fuel to the fire by using leftover campaign funds to pay for a radio ad urging support for her repeal efforts. \"New Mexico is attracting people from around the world -- China, Poland, Brazil,\" the political spot says. \"But they\'re not coming to ski, or for the balloon fiesta. They\'re illegal immigrants coming for drivers licenses.\"

The United States has long been considered a melting pot. I remember marveling at the way legal immigrants were welcomed into my Southern California neighborhood in the 60s and 70s. Each of them came to the United States with the desire to own a piece of the American dream; making a better life for themselves and their families. As a general rule, they worked hard to assimilate into the American way of life by learning the English language and local customs. They did this while at the same time holding on to their cultural heritage and passing it on to each new generation of their families.

HERE IS THE COMPLETE LIST OF ALL IMMIGRATION BILLS: HB 70 Sponsored by: Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act -- This bill would enact the \"Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act,\" which, among other things, would require that an officer verify the immigration status of a detained or arrested person upon reasonable suspicion the person is an illegal alien.

State Sen. Curt Bramble\'s comprehensive immigration bill is not only what Utah needs, it sets an example for the rest of the nation. Senate Bill 288 takes some of the best aspects of other bills, avoids the more tangled issues, and adopts a conciliatory tone that most Utahns support. That approach has real promise. SB 288 is the work product of more than 25 legislators, both Democrat and Republican, plus numerous stakeholders who provided input for several weeks.

Much-touted immigration reform bills were slow to get moving through the state Legislature this year, but with only nine days left in the session, legislators seem to be debating one measure or another every day. There are a number of immigration-related bills in both houses, including proposals for guest worker programs and state enforcement of federal immigration laws, bills regarding health care and in-state tuition and more. And then there\'s an omnibus bill that aims to address all those issues.

LAS VEGAS (AP) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is set to return to the Las Vegas high school where one-time rival and tea party candidate Sharron Angle\'s campaign sputtered to an end after an odd exchange with a group of Hispanic teenagers. Reid is scheduled to chat Thursday afternoon with the same Hispanic student group at Rancho High School where Angle told more than a hundred teenagers that some of them could be confused as Asian. She also denied using images of Hispanics in a handful of fearful advertisements slamming illegal immigrants.

SALT LAKE CITY ?— Jen Jones can\'t imagine the papers she spreads out on her desk — Social Security cards, work permits, copies of government issued ID — are fake. \"They look legit to me,\" said the human resource manager, pursing her lips as if daring someone to question her. \"I\'d never take them if they didn\'t.\" But things aren\'t always as they seem. Jones, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, recently discovered one of the men on her construction crew immigrated to the country illegally. She didn\'t fire him. Instead, she found him a lawyer.

SALT LAKE CITY — A BYU professor is among those challenging facts and figures proponents of illegal immigration bills use to make their case for tough enforcement laws. One of those areas is crime, where it\'s commonly suggested that the rate is higher among illegal immigrants than the general population.

The bill, SB288, is a compilation of guest worker, enforcement, employer sanctions and in-state tuition bills that have largely passed the House of Representatives. It can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/6842dt6. But two House lawmakers, Reps. Stephen Sandstrom and Chris Herrod, did not want their respective bills rolled into an omnibus bill and extracted themselves from the process when Bramble began meetings with legislators weeks ago in the attempt to bring comprehensive immigration reform.

SALT LAKE CITY — After the Utah House tweaked a bill aimed at repealing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants Thursday, its sponsor abruptly pulled it from consideration — at least for the afternoon. Lawmakers debated HB191 for about an hour before Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, apparently decided he\'d had enough of his colleagues\' tinkering. Another amendment was about to be moved when he decided to shelve it for the day. He may bring the bill up again at any time.

Utah’s Latino population soared by 78 percent during the past decade — growing by nearly 157,000 people to 358,000 total. That is about twice the size of Salt Lake City, according to long-awaited 2010 census data released Thursday. In fact, the head count , taken once every 10 years, indicates that three of every 10 new Utahns who arrived by birth or immigration during the decade were Latino — and four of every 10 were minorities.

The fallout from Sen. Curtis Bramble’s omnibus immigration proposal continued to be felt Thursday throughout the Capitol as Gov. Gary Herbert praised the comprehensive bill while House Speaker Becky Lockhart and others vowed to fight to keep several single-approach House bills intact.

A comprehensive immigration reform proposal that plucks key provisions from several other immigration bills — including Rep. Stephen Sandstrom’s enforcement-only measure — was floated Wednesday. If key senators get their way, the initiative will become the Legislature’s multifaceted solution to the illegal immigration problem and could push aside other measures attempting to address it in piecemeal fashion.

Latino groups attempted Thursday to call a two-year timeout on debating bills that deal with illegal immigration, but a Senate committee instead signaled for lawmakers to play on. The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee voted 2-1 to kill SJR18 by Senate Minority Leader Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, which he said he pushed on behalf of the Latino community.