Community health clinics are a primary source of medical care for undocumented immigrants today and for the foreseeable future. Undocumented workers and their children don’t figure into President Barack Obama’s signature health overhaul. Safety-net programs such as Medicaid are generally off-limits. And undocumented immigrants will not be allowed to buy health coverage — even at full cost with their own funds — through exchanges, the online insurance retail markets set to open in 2014.

In 2008, all members of Utah’s congressional delegation signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suggesting what many in the state believe: Undocumented immigrants are responsible for much of Utah’s crime. “Numerous illegal aliens are committing crimes in Utah communities with virtual impunity,” the letter read.

Six long years after applying to sponsor her sister for emigration from the Philippines, Cottonwood Heights real estate agent Eunice Jones was ecstatic to receive a letter last year saying the State Department finally approved her sister’s eligibility. But that didn’t mean Emerald Guerra, 39, could come anytime soon. The State Department cautioned that no visas were currently available for Filipinos in her sister’s category of siblings of U.S. citizens seeking to immigrate. It didn’t say when they would become available.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King, who next week becomes chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he will push legislation to tighten border security and arrest more illegal aliens -- challenging what he considers to be President Obama\'s lax immigration policies. \"The Obama administration continues to display an obvious lack of urgency when it comes to gaining operational control of the border, which is absolutely critical,\" King (R-LI) said. He said Obama has \"done little\" in the past two years to keep out illegal immigrants and the country needs a new strategy \"that incorporates the necessary staffing, fencing and technology to do the job.\"

SALT LAKE CITY - States took on the issue of immigration this year in frustration over Washington\'s failure to act. Arizona led the charge for radical reform and Utah was right behind. The Utah legislature passed a law that allowed police to be cross-deputized as immigration officers. But the immigration debate got heated when Utah\'s neighbor to the south passed polarizing legislation.

Although we supported the unsuccessful DREAM Act immigration measure, which would have allowed some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a chance of citizenship if they went to school or entered the military, we understand the opposition behind it. Many Americans are tired of the federal government\'s procrastination on dealing with illegal immigration and the dysfunctions that come with it. They want a secure U.S. border before other immigration initiatives are tackled.

When Republican lawmakers take over the House and gain strength in the Senate after the new year, a decadelong drive to overhaul the immigration system and legalize some of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants seems all but certain to come to a halt. When New York Republican Peter T. King takes over the House Homeland Security Committee in January, he plans to propose legislation to reverse what he calls an \"obvious lack of urgency\" by the Obama administration to secure the border.

The DREAM Act, a bill that would have put some undocumented immigrants who arrived in this country before they were 16 on a path to citizenship, failed to pass the Senate in part because Republicans are in full anti-immigrant mode. But it also failed because not one American leader urged us to seriously consider what it means to be American in the 21st century.

Federal agents took an illegal immigrant to Grant Medical Center in October 2009 to collect proof of his ties to a Mexican-based drug ring. During his two-day hospital stay, Jose Aranda-Mora supplied the needed evidence - 92 balloons of heroin that he had swallowed before a traffic stop in Richland County. Three months earlier, immigration agents had deported Mora to his homeland of Mexico. But the free ride home served as no deterrent. Since 2000, Mora has been deported four times, only to return time and again - most recently to Ohio.

It would have been easy for Jose Enriquez to fall behind. After he moved to the United States as a young child, he struggled to learn English. His mother was a strong woman but had only a third-grade education. She cleaned houses for a living, and the family didn’t have much money. But Enriquez, now an assistant principal at Mountain View High School in Orem, succeeded, and he’s determined to help other Latino students do the same.

ST. GEORGE — Washington County School District officials say they\'ve seen a 30 percent drop in the number of students who need assistance learning English as a second language. The St. George Spectrum reports the demand for ESL services grew rapidly over the past decade. District records show the need peaked with 2,424 students in 2008. Since then, district officials said, the numbers have dropped.

After weeks of speculation that he would pursue a scorched-earth immigration agenda, Smith detailed his to-do list for the first time in an interview with POLITICO – and it’s an early but important signal that the new House Republican majority plans to attack the issue of immigration through the prism of jobs, rather than red meat for the base.

Rep. Stephen Sandstrom and Sen. Luz Robles said they continue to be open to merging their immigration bills before the legislative session despite being far apart on several provisions in each proposal. The two lawmakers met as recently as last week to discuss working through the disparities — though neither has scheduled any upcoming meetings.

The legal affiliate of a designated “hate group” provided assistance for Rep. Stephen Sandstrom’s enforcement-only Arizona-style immigration bill — a partnership that has raised a red flag for those who see the measure as racist. The Immigration Reform Law Institute is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform — commonly referred to as FAIR.

WASHINGTON -- Fresh off of passing a law to combat illegal immigration that was so controversial the federal government sued to block it, Arizona\'s Republican-controlled Legislature is poised to push the limits of immigration policy yet again, this time by challenging the basic rules that decide who is an American.

LOS ANGELES — A group of Los Angeles college students plans to take their fight for immigration rights to the states and the 2012 election after Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have given thousands of young illegal immigrants a path to legal status.