The administration also isn’t getting much credit for the work that it has already done, which was supposed to give Democrats strong enough credentials on enforcement to open the “political window” for passing a comprehensive bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the approximately 11 million people now in the U.S. undocumented.

But Frank Sharry, head of America’s Voices, said reform opponents will never be satisfied. “Republicans have been moving the goal post on this border-security-first issue for a decade. It’s never enough and it never will be enough. It’s a fool’s errand,” he said.

Worse still, immigrant advocates charge, in their zeal to demonstrate toughness, DHS and its enforcement partners have dragged many law-abiding undocumented immigrants and legitimate businesses into the system, shattering Obama’s promises of more humane treatment.

“There is incredible outrage in the immigrant and Hispanic communities and a deep sense of betrayal they feel from the president,” Bhargava said.

Seeking to reverse a steep drop in deportations, U.S. immigration authorities have set controversial new quotas for agents. At the same time, officials have stepped back from an Obama administration commitment to focus enforcement efforts primarily on undocumented immigrants who are dangerous or have violent criminal backgrounds.

Senate Democrats' plan highlights nation's shift to the right on immigration

As protesters in 80 U.S. cities demanded an overhaul Saturday of the nation's immigration laws, fueled in part by anger over a measure enacted on April 23 in Arizona, a new proposal by Senate Democrats shows how far the debate has shifted to the right since Congress took up the issue in 2007, advocates on both sides said.

The Democrats' legislative "framework" includes a slew of new immigration enforcement measures aimed at U.S. borders and workplaces. It would further expand the 20,000-member Border Patrol; triple fines against U.S. employers that hire undocumented immigrants; and, most controversially, require all American workers ― citizens and non-citizens alike ― to get new Social Security cards linked to their fingerprints to ease work eligibility checks.

The plan's emphasis on "securing the border first" before taking steps to allow many of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States to pay fines and apply for legal status was plainly a gesture to Republicans. Even so, no Republican is supporting it, not even Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has been working with Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in bipartisan talks over the issue for months.

The Democrats' shift underscores how, in the struggle between enforcement advocates and legalization backers, the former seem to be gaining, experts said.

Ideas that were hotly contested in ill-fated Senate debates in 2006 and 2007 seem now to be taken for granted, said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "You've seen a lot of movement, and in partisan terms mostly movement on the Democratic side toward Republican positions," he said.

The shift is troubling to labor strategists and immigrant advocates, who for years have seen accepting tougher enforcement as a concession that would allow them to attain their goal of bringing undocumented workers and their families out of the shadows. "Why would a conservative vote for something if they are already getting what they want?" said Ali Noorani, a lead organizer of Saturday's national demonstrations to hold President Obama to his 2008 campaign promise to take action.

In an effort to show political energy remains in that cause, more than 100,000 people turned out from Los Angeles to Phoenix to New York, led by figures including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony. In Washington, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and 35 others were arrested at the White House gates, as hundreds of people held signs such as, "Don't Kill the American Dream."

But the Senate shift also reflects political reality. High U.S. unemployment, an anti-Washington mood and violence from Mexico's war against drug cartels are feeding the public's frustration, particularly in Arizona, where smuggling-related violence and crimes are on the rise. Referring to the new Arizona law, a toughest-in-the-nation crackdown on undocumented immigration, Graham said last week it "shows the country is moving away from Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and towards border security."

To both sides, Arizona's law, which makes it a state crime to be in the country undocumented, shows what an "enforcement-first" approach might look like.

"If you enforce the law, people will decide to go home," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks reduced immigration and applauded the Arizona plan.

Critics of the law, however, said its enforcement will open a window on the huge social, economic and government costs of removing 11 million people, as well as the constitutional challenges of doing so without racial profiling or expanding police powers. Most Americans do not want that, they say, but firm and fair policies that uphold the law, bolster U.S. workers and the economy, and respect the nation's immigrant heritage.

For now, analysts generally agree with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who declared the Senate plan dead this year, absent a political earthquake. Republicans accuse Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) of rushing the issue to help his uphill fight for reelection in Nevada, where Hispanics make up about 15 percent of voters.

Calling Reid's plan a "politically-motivated 'conceptual paper,'" Graham and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said it poisoned the well for bipartisan talks. They questioned why border security measures weren't funded immediately, and why it would not seek to end "chain migration" by restricting family reunification policies that allow close relatives of permanent residents to immigrate.

The way Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network, sees it, "What’s changing are the internal party politics. The Republican Party has shifted to the right and the Democrats, in the effort to get a deal, have moved the bill to the right, and it hasn’t worked, so far.”

Lastly, all should remember what happens in Arizona, quickly spreads across the entire United States. We should start the Hispanic Tea Party to remove Hispanic members of Congress who silently allowed the Puerto Rican chairperson of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus to place Puerto Rico above Immigration Reform. The consequence ― Arizona now in flames!

— Jon Garrido

For 20 Years, Ed Pastor has been Masquerading as a U.S. Congressman