President Obama is reviving the thorny issue of immigration this week. He sent administration officials to Arizona on Monday to advertise his efforts on border security, while he is encouraging supporters of an immigration overhaul to focus their ire on Republicans as the cause for the legislation’s stall in Congress.

Prior to SB 1070 we had Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio trying to make catching illegal aliens a big deal for his police force. Chasing illegals got him lots of news coverage as the toughest sheriff in the country. Like there was a national job of Sheriff of the USA. In the rest of the state the view was that even though the person violated federal law by climbing over the border fence, it was not a state law violation.

Maybe you\'ve heard the debates on talk radio or seen the e-mail blasts, arriving with increasing urgency as people take sides over Arizona\'s new immigration law. You can hardly turn on your computer without tripping over statistics like these: \"Every day, illegal aliens murder 12 Americans\" and \"$200 billion a year in suppressed American wages are caused by illegal aliens.\"

But because of Sandoval\'s stance in the primary campaign in favor of Arizona\'s law making it a state crime to be in the country illegally, the Republican has broken the hearts of some Hispanics who previously rooted for him. \"As a former federal judge, I support Arizonans exercising their state\'s rights especially when the federal government has failed to do its job,\" Sandoval said in a recent e-mail about his position.

A white Ford pickup with Arizona plates is driving north on U.S. 191 headed for the Utah border. Afraid of encountering police, the family inside is traveling at night. The pickup\'s headlights cut through a sea of darkness. The family is in a hurry to get out of Arizona, to get away from the state\'s harsh new immigration law.

For some people, Senate Bill 1070 isn\'t a constitutional argument over states\' rights, it\'s a matter of life and death. \"The enactment of SB 1070 is absolutely going to prevent immigrant women from seeking domestic-violence services,\" said Kendra Leiby, systems-advocacy coordinator for the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence. \"And not only are women going to be hesitant to leave abusive relationships, but they are afraid to make a call to report someone else\'s abuse.\"

Maybe Arizona doesn\'t care about San Antonio\'s opinion. After all, San Antonio is just a city, and she should mind her own business and deal with her potholes, parks and police cars — you know, puny muni stuff. San Antonio spoke up anyway. She hasn\'t always been this vocal; for a while now, she was content with her role as the quiet type. Less hefty than Houston, less debutante than Dallas, less activist than Austin

They are called \"anchor babies\" -- the children born in the United States of illegal immigrant parents -- and pressure is growing to change the meaning of the 14th Amendment so as to deny them automatic citizenship. Ninety-one members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to do just that. It was submitted in the House last year by Georgia Republican Nathan Deal. Backers of Arizona\'s harsh anti-immigrant measure are drafting legislation that would withhold birth certificates from these babies. Similar measures are being proposed in other states

And don\'t expect to hear any more from former Gov. Pete Wilson, who pleased GOP voters in the Republican primary when he said Whitman would be \"tough as nails on illegal immigration,\" but who is considered a liability on that topic in a general election in which fewer than a third of voters are registered Republican.

Daniel Rodríguez was up at 5 a.m. one day in May, preparing to speak at a news conference on Arizona\'s new immigration law. The event would draw national media coverage because it featured undocumented youths arrested earlier that week while protesting at Sen. John McCain\'s Tucson office.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday reiterated her assertion that the majority of illegal immigrants are coming to the United States for reasons other than work, saying most are committing crimes and being used as drug mules by cartels. Brewer\'s remarks are an expansion of comments she made last week during a televised debate among the four Republican gubernatorial candidates.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) said Friday that most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are being used to transport drugs across the border, an assertion that critics painted as exaggerated and racist. \"I believe today, under the circumstances that we\'re facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in,\" Brewer said.

In light of debate over illegal immigration, I\'d like to highlight an idea that has, unfortunately, skewed the rhetoric. This notion originally conceived by social scholars is known as white privilege and suggests that only whites enjoy certain societal advantages for no reason but their skin color. It is used as a sword of demagoguery that, when wielded in debate, causes the pros and cons of various topics to perish in a quagmire of collectivism.

The White House is expected to file a lawsuit next week. Arizona has raised more than $120,000 in private donations to defend the legislation.

Now that the primaries are over, it is a good time to profess what conservatives, at least this one, believe before the mudslinging begins. Conservatives believe in freedom of religion and its public practice. Marriage is between one man and one woman. Gay rights are civil rights, not matrimonial rights. Human life begins at conception. Abortion is the murder of a human being.

Why is President Obama suing to invalidate the Arizona law on illegal immigration? Why is he incurring the enmity of even his own Democratic congressmen from the Phoenix and Tucson areas by trying to kill a law that two-thirds of Arizona and a similar proportion of America as a whole supports? The answer: It is a desperate, last-ditch attempt to rebuild his sagging popularity with America\'s Hispanic voters.