From the moment the first plane hit the North Tower, the immigration system in the United States was destined to change.

Former Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he “would have raised hell” if he had known that President George W. Bush had granted a visa to Raul Castro’s daughter, Mariela Castro.

To many supporters of immigration reform, Obama has been a major disappointment. Still, for many others pushing to provide a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, Obama is the only choice in this year's election.

Veterans of the Bush administration say that Mitt Romney should follow his predecessor’s lead when it comes to Latinos.

Governor Romney will have to counter the negative perception he has and find a way to develop trust with the Hispanic community

During a White House press conference, President Obama vowed to take on immigration reform if he wins a second term in office, calling it an "American issue."

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) took to the floor of the House to address former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's recent custom of calling President Obama the "Food Stamp President."

If Gingrich ends up the GOP nominee, it could potentially bring back Bush-like rhetoric from 2004 and allow Republicans to build a strategy that targets Latinos.

Critics within the GOP say the party's current stance on immigration stands in sharp contrast to the discourse of earlier decades, and warn that vitriolic language could hurt Republican candidates with moderate Republicans and Latino voters alike.

One of the great unanswered questions about the 2012 election is how the nation's 10 million Latino voters will cast their ballots. In 2008, they favored President Obama by more than a 2-1 margin. But facing double-digit unemployment and Obama's broken promises on immigration reform, Latinos are disaffected from the president and aren't especially energized about voting for him.

President Barack Obama says he backs immigration reform, announcing last month an initiative to ease deportation policies, but he has sent home more than 1 million illegal immigrants in 2 1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two. The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of Sept. 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms.

In the decade since the September 11 attacks, there has been a steady increase in language that frames unauthorized immigrants as a criminal problem. References to “illegals,” “illegal immigrants” and their rhetorical variants now dominate the speech of both major political parties, as well as news media coverage of immigration.

After a huge GOP media blitz aimed at Hispanic voters, one Republican presidential contender is officially going after the Latino vote in the 2012 race. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has appointed Ana Navarro to the position of National Hispanic Chairperson of his campaign.

Obama had his chance. He raised the hopes of Latinos and then didn’t deliver.