On paper, Christine Mastin looks like the perfect Democratic candidate to represent Denver\'s Washington Park neighborhood in the legislature. Her father was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s who met her mother in Chile. Mastin grew up speaking Spanish and now is an immigration attorney. But here\'s the catch: Mastin is the Republican candidate in House District 3, which also includes all of Cherry Hills Village and Englewood\'s eastern side.

At almost 48 million, Hispanics are 15 percent of the U.S. population. Though the largest minority, most Hispanics do not identify as such but rather by their national origins. Culturally and politically, African Americans remain the more-cohesive minority.

SAN JUAN, Texas (AP) — When Ruth Garcia\'s twins are born in two months, they\'ll have all the rights of U.S. citizens. They and their six brothers and sisters will be able to vote, apply for federal student loans and even run for president. Garcia is an illegal immigrant who crossed into the country about 14 years ago, before her children were born, and the citizenship granted to her children and millions others like them is at the center of a divisive national debate.

PHOENIX -- A federal appellate court struck down a local ordinance in Pennsylvania aimed at illegal immigrants, potentially boosting the chances civil rights and business groups will be able to kill Arizona\'s employer sanctions law and potentially the state\'s new immigration law. In a unanimous decision, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday it was illegal for city officials in Hazleton to forbid companies from hiring undocumented workers. They said such action is pre-empted by federal law.

Well before Arizona passed its controversial immigration law this year, a slew of other states and municipalities tried to pass laws targeting illegal immigrants. A federal appeals court ruled today that Hazleton, Pennsylvania, could not fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants or deny business permits to companies that hire them. The laws, spearheaded by Republican Mayor Lou Bartletta who\'s currently running for Congress, were passed in 2006 after two illegal immigrants were charged in a fatal shooting.

Today, the Deseret News offers the last installment of the three-part series on the deportation of illegal immigrants. The stories are told through the eyes of those most affected by deportation — the Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers who arrest illegal immigrants, convicted criminals and otherwise; attorneys who represent them in court; the detainees themselves, as well as their families, who face uncertain futures once their loved ones are deported.

MESA, Arizona — On Tuesday, Aug. 24, The Latin America News Dispatch sat down with Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce to discuss the controversial immigration law, SB1070, of which he was the lead author. At the time Pearce was up for reelection, but the incumbent senator ran uncontested, predictably coming away with 96.56 percent of the vote (a write-in candidate garnered 3.44 percent).

A denial of birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants would end up increasing the size of the nation\'s illegal population, according to a new study released Wednesday. The idea of ending birthright citizenship has become popular among politicians and activists seeking to curb the number of illegal immigrants. But Jennifer Van Hook, a demographer and the report\'s principal author, said such a change would instead increase the size of the illegal population, a commonsense result of illegal immigrants having children after a birthright repeal.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Representative Stephen Sandstrom was a \"no show\" for an immigration debate at a Rotary Club luncheon on Tuesday, and the head of Proyecto Latino claims he \"chickened out.\"

SALT LAKE CITY — As the sun peaked over the Wasatch Mountains on a recent morning, several federal agents took strategic positions outside a small Kearns home while two knocked on the front door. A young Hispanic man pulled back the curtains in a window adjacent to the door to talk with them through the screen. A few minutes later, the man let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside to look for a man they believed to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose criminal record includes theft and documents fraud.

Immigration does strange things to politicians. One-time US presidential candidate John McCain abandoned his previous moderate position on immigration in a successful attempt to retain the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona last month. Meg Whitman, former chief executive of Ebay, also adopted a hard line on immigration as she set out to become governor of California. Having won the Republican primary, she has changed tack, appealing to immigrants and Hispanic voters in her drive to win the election itself.

SALT LAKE CITY -- In the debate over illegal immigration, the argument is often raised that the people who knowingly employ undocumented workers deserve much of the blame. But there is another side to that story. Because they are in the country illegally, is it OK to cheat them, take advantage of their labor and refuse to give them pay? Carlos Chavez When Carlos Chavez moved to Utah more than a decade ago, he came here legally with a visitor\'s visa. But by the time it had expired, he had built a new life.

Utah is considering a free-market solution to illegal immigration that Arizona\'s Legislature rejected two years ago. Arizona should follow Utah\'s example and take another look at a guest-worker program. Like Arizona\'s SB 1070, Utah\'s guest-worker plan is a direct response to Washington\'s failure to enact rational immigration reform.

Welfare payments to children of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County increased in July to $52 million, prompting renewed calls from one county supervisor to rein in public benefits to such families. The payments, made to illegal immigrants for their U.S. citizen children, included $30 million in food stamps and $22 million from the CalWorks welfare program, according to county figures released Friday by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

The California governor\'s race shifts into high gear this week as Democrat Jerry Brown launches his television ad campaign after ceding the airwaves to Republican Meg Whitman over the summer. Mr. Brown\'s commercial illustrates the candidates\' contrasting resources and messages in a race expected to be one of the most expensive in the U.S. this fall.

A day after extending his unbeaten record in Arizona elections, Sen. John McCain on Wednesday looked ahead to his next battle _ a contest with a little-known Democrat that is likely to be a smooth ride to re-election. McCain easily dispatched J.D. Hayworth in Tuesday\'s Republican primary, extinguishing the biggest threat to his re-election in 24 years in the Senate.