The downturn is 'pervasive' and could hurt future growth, but major metropolitan gateway areas are less affected, analysis of Census data shows.

The Tennessee Democratic Party recently held its first-ever summit specifically targeting the Hispanic community, and included discussions about how to register people to vote, calls for volunteers to get active in politics.

Alondra Gomez, 14, joined the Dance Alive program six years ago and barely understood English. This year she will play the role of the Sugarplum Fairy in Ballet Tennessee's Nutcracker performance.

For nearly a decade, Conexion Americas has been helping thousands of Latino families across Middle Tennessee advance their social and financial lives with English language classes, financial education courses and much more.

So far this year, 34 states have introduced laws that would make it harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012, 12 passed.

E-Verify has made it harder to find enough workers for many farm jobs, especially during spring growing season. Though the U.S. unemployment rate is stalled above 9 percent, business owners say few native-born workers are willing to do tough jobs, leading employers to hire immigrants.

Over the past decade, the story of population growth in the United States was defined largely by the story of Latinos emerging as the nation's largest minority. 1 in every 6 U.S. residents is Latino and the 2010 Census count showed that Hispanics have begun to fully spread across the nation.

Advocates in Tennessee claim Latinos in Shelbyville were purposely coerced by federal officials during immigration raids.

There are untold numbers of children in the crosshairs of a vitriolic immigration debate: children born and raised in America, but forced to move to other countries when their parents are deported or pressured to leave.

Throughout the years, there have been tales of women who came to this country thinking they were headed for a better life only to be put into situations where they had no choice but to sell their bodies for sexual purposes – often with some man gaining the profit from her physical activity.

A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled in favor of immigrant mother Juana Villegas, who was shackled during labor and after giving birth while being held in the custody of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, the Tennessean recently reported. U.S. District Court Judge William Haynes Jr. will set a hearing for damages against Metro government and the sheriff’s office in Villegas’ case.

I’m sure there are some people to whom The Tennessean newspaper out of Nashville recently was absolutely abhorrent. The newspaper in the city that some like to think of as a country music scene covered a local conference about the state’s growing Latino population (it more than doubled during the past decade) and headlined it on its website, “TN needs more bilingual professionals.”