Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 6, 2008 -- A Startling report released October 2, 2008 by a prominent Washington think tank provided statistics showing that for the first time in over a decade, the number of legal immigrants entering the U.S to work exceeded the number of illegal immigrants entering to work.

Maryin is the name, like the left \"margin\" of a paper. That is usually how I have to explain how to pronounce my name. However, others pronouncing my name has not been the only thing that I have had to struggle with. Growing up as a Latina has not always been easy and living in the South did not help much, either.

Maryin is the name, like the left \"margin\" of a paper. That is usually how I have to explain how to pronounce my name. However, others pronouncing my name has not been the only thing that I have had to struggle with. Growing up as a Latina has not always been easy and living in the South did not help much, either.

Sergio Martinez-Villaman was in the United States legally when he was stopped by a sheriff\'s deputy on June 27 during a crime sweep in Mesa. The deputy told Martinez-Villaman he had failed to use his turn signal. The 32-year-old landscape contractor from Sinaloa, Mexico, showed the deputy, Detective Jeremy Templeton, his valid H2B seasonal-work visa, Mexican passport and other documents. But Templeton, who the Sheriff\'s Office said is trained to enforce immigration laws, arrested him anyway on a misdemeanor charge of failing to show a driver\'s license or ID.

Home loans held by illegal immigrants in California and across the nation generally have had fewer delinquencies than similar loans held by U.S. citizens, in part because of stricter lending requirements, according to banks, insurers and Realtors, reports The Times\' Anna Gorman.

In rounding up 1,700 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes or linked to criminal gangs -- including about 400 in the Los Angeles area -- the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has made life safer for the residents of terrorized neighborhoods. But the four-month sweep, part of Operation Community Shield, also demonstrates the need for comprehensive immigration reform, including legal status for most of the estimated 12 million people in this country illegally.

Ask anyone on Atlanta Highway if Latinos are leaving Hall County, and there will not be one moment of hesitation in between the question and its affirmation. Staples of the local Latino community - day laborers, managers of grocery stores and rental properties, owners of travel companies and retail shops - all say it is obvious that there are fewer Latinos in Hall County today than there were six months ago.

DURHAM - Angela Guerrero knew she might be overwhelmed for a few weeks, possibly a month, juggling work, child care and the daily grind of family life when her husband set out for the U.S. consulate offices in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She never expected to be in the predicament she is in -- her husband of five years banned from this country for at least a decade, her family torn between two countries and a tangle of immigration issues to unsnarl.

CIUDAD HIDALGO, MEXICO — After nearly seven years in the United States, 16-year-old Edgar Gutierrez was back in a hometown he hardly recognized. He returned to relatives he couldn\'t remember. Kids thought he was stuck up because he had lived in the U.S. Teachers scolded him when he pronounced his name with an American accent. Edgar grew up in these mountains of Central Mexico, but now he felt like a stranger.

LOS ANGELES — Day-labor organizer Antonio Bernabe, who sees the landscape of illegal immigration almost every day, thought for a moment last week about the latest report showing a declining number of undocumented workers in the country and wondered whether it meant anything. \"If they\'re saying that (illegal immigrants) are leaving, that\'s true,\" said Bernabe, day-labor organizer in the Valley for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. \"But at the same time, many are still coming every day, all trying to reach the American dream.

Moises Ramirez crossed into California the morning of Oct. 21, 2007, with a plan. He would get a restaurant job and, with the money he earned, build a house on land his father had given him in El Grullo, Jalisco. A year or two of hard work and he could go home to Mexico and the woman he loved.

It took a 777-point nose dive of the stock market for many Americans to realize that the financial crisis is the real deal. The multibillion-dollar package to rescue Wall Street got a little more support among taxpayers when they finally understood that as bad as it sounds, not approving it could be much worse. Almost everyone in the United States has been affected by the economic crisis. But according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, the economic slump has disproportionately affected Latino workers, who make up 14 percent of the job market in the United States.

Along with their meager belongings and the little money they might have saved, the immigrants are also taking away what had been one of the most volatile issues in American politics. The much celebrated fence along the Mexican border that the nativists demanded to keep immigrants out has now become as much of an impediment for discouraged immigrants wanting to go home.

Amid reports of people dying after being detained for administrative immigration-related reasons, we recently visited the Elizabeth Immigration Detention Center to see firsthand how detainees are being housed.

People entering the Capitol Theatre to participate in a recent naturalization ceremony were simply radiant, Sheryl Burgin, an usher at the event, observed. Burgin was working at the monthly ceremony for the first time and said she was moved by the attendees\' devotion and gratitude. \"Seeing the oath and ceremony renews patriotism a great deal in me because these people have worked so hard,\" Burgin said. \"We as citizens often take our liberties for granted.\"