But as Romney clumsily half-courts the Hispanic vote, conditions at our southern border are growing more dire. The brutal drug-related violence that has long gripped Mexico is on the rise. Two weeks ago, 49 bodies missing their heads, hands and legs were found near Monterey, Mexico.  A message left nearby indicated the Zetas cartel was responsible. One week earlier, 18 dismembered bodies were found in Guadalajara. One week before that, 23 bodies, with indications of torture, were found hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border. They are casualties of an apocalyptic drug war, a thriving human smuggling trade and, more broadly, a deeply dysfunctional relationship between the U.S. and Mexico.

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“I absolutely advocate for comprehensive immigration reform,” Martinez  told reporter Andrew Romano. “Republicans want to be tough and say, ‘Illegals, you’re gone.’ But the answer is a lot more complex than that.”

With those words, Martinez inflicted multiple wounds on whatever slender chance she had to join the national ticket. First, she indicated support for the immigration agenda that President Obama promises to pursue if he defeats Romney in November. Second, the reforms the 43-year-old first-term Republican favors are opposed by every Republican member of the Senate (even those like John McCain, who used to support it) and a solid majority in the House. (In case there was any doubt, the same day Martinez's interview appeared, Politico reported that the Romney campaign was seeking a "boring white guy" as a running mate.)

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Rubio joined this contest last week by endorsing Romney and then sitting down with National Review Online, NewsMax, Politico, Geraldo Rivera, and Fox News, to propose a new direction in U.S. immigration policy: a GOP-style DREAM Act to reward high-achieving high school students who are illegal immigrants. While the Democratic-sponsored DREAM Act promises U.S. citizenship to good students, Rubio says he and other Republican are exploring some other tangible reward short of citizenship. He told NRO:

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The president took a trip to Arizona ostensibly to do something involving jobs and "innovation," and immediately upon exiting Air Force Once, President Obama and Gov. Brewer began arguing. The argument took place outside the earshot of reporters, but they saw Brewer wag her finger, Obama and Brewer talk over each other, and Obama walk away from Brewer while she was still speaking (which, seriously: enraging move, right?).

Brewer then went over to the reporters and said the president was mad about her book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," available now at booksellers everywhere. Drudge soon posted the pool report and the finger-wagging picture. Brewer went on Fox and a local radio show. She posted the picture on her Facebook wall. It was brilliant, really.

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Longtime Republican operative Charlie Black, who was a top aide to the John McCain campaign in 2008, has joined Romney’s “circle of informal advisers,” the New York Times reported this week. After McCain lost, Black rejoined as chairman the high-powered bipartisan lobbying firm he founded in the 1980s, which is now called Prime Policy Group.

Disclosure records show that in early 2011, Black, personally lobbied for Wal-Mart on the issue of the DREAM Act, which would extend permanent resident status to illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and meet various achievement requirements. Wal-Mart has been a prominent voice in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. Prime Policy Group was paid $60,000 by Wal-Mart in the first quarter of 2011 for lobbing on immigration and other issues.

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Kicking off her book tour with a sneak preview in Alabama last Friday, in homage to that state’s controversial crackdown on immigrant schoolchildren and workers, Brewer set out the two main themes of her impassioned new book, "Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politics to Secure America's Borders." She said, "We are under siege. And we have been totally disrespected by the federal government."

Brewer makes it clear from the first line that it is not really "we," as in the collective Arizona populace, but she who has been unfairly treated by the "liberal" media and President Obama, in particular, in the aftermath of Arizona's defiant legislative act. She so identities herself with the state that she writes at one point, "Kind of like me.  Kind of like Arizona." The substantial portion of the state that is not like Brewer is what torments her.

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"But when you look at history, the 'largest number' is only about 1,700 more than two years ago," Krikorian says. So most deportations ever, but not by a large enough margin.

If Obama really cared, see, he'd deport a zillion people:

Nor is the stagnation in the deportation numbers due to a temporary diversion of resources, as after 9/11: The Obama administration, as a matter of policy, refuses to even ask Congress for the resources needed to deport any more than 400,000 people. Now, 400,000 deportations (of illegal aliens, of course, but also of legal aliens who made themselves deportable because of crimes) is a lot, but it can easily be doubled; I remember one of the top people at INS in the Clinton years telling me that the 114,000 removed in 1997 was a really, really big number and sufficient proof of their seriousness about immigration enforcement.

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"As your congressman on the House floor, I will do anything short of shooting them. Anything that is lawful, it needs to be done because illegal aliens need to quit taking jobs from American citizens."

During the same brief interview, Brooks also said that so many illegal aliens were in an Alabama jail because they had "victimized Americans."

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, last month signed controversial legislation that makes the state's crackdown on undocumented immigrants one of the toughest in the country. As our own Justin Elliott wrote, "Like the Arizona law, Alabama's measure requires local police to check the immigration status of people who they believe may be in the country illegally. But it goes much further, establishing new requirements for checking the immigration status of students and potential tenants."

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Last December the bill failed in the Senate 55-41 (in what was its fifth roll out) and since the Republicans are now in the majority, the bill has no greater prospects this time round. However, its defenders are hoping an argument from economics might do the trick. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in Tuesday testimony, "this is an investment not an expense."

According to Politico, "Duncan said the law would rescue the federal deficit by $1.4 billion in the next decade by making it possible for more illegal immigrants to stay in the country and pay taxes."

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That's obviously, patently absurd: The White House is still deporting more people than any previous administration and this memo only calls for some discretion in deciding whom to deport, because the nation literally cannot deport them all. ("Also on Friday, Mr. Obama extended the deployment of some 1,200 National Guard troops who are backing up immigration agents along the Southwest border." Why won't the president protect us from the Mexicans?)

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Former Washington Post journalist Jose Antonio Vargas -- who won a Pulitzer Prize with the paper for his reporting on the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007 -- made a shocking admission this morning: He's an illegal immigrant.

Vargas made the confession by way of a remarkable personal essay in the New York Times Magazine, titled "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant." His story began at the age of 12, when he emigrated from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California. At the time, Vargas says, he didn't know anything was amiss. He says he discovered his illegal status at 16, when he went to the DMV to obtain a learner's permit -- only to be informed by a staffer there that his green card was forged.

Still, he continued to assimilate, became a leader in his high school, and earned a scholarship to San Francisco State University. Later came newspaper internships, culminating with a post-grad offer from the Washington Post. Along the way, he cautiously built a network of sympathetic figures who knew his secret and helped him to maintain the facade of citizenship. He's gone on to build a career for himself as a star journalist, though he says he always felt uncomfortable with the deception.

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Despite the relative lack of national media attention, the Alabama law includes more harsh measures than even Arizona's notorious SB 1070, which immediately faced legal challenges after passing last year. Like the Arizona law, Alabama's measure requires local police to check the immigration status of people who they believe may be in the country illegally.

But it goes much further, establishing new requirements for checking the immigration status of students and potential tenants. It is scheduled to go into effect in September -- but not before a promised legal challenge by civil rights groups.

Bentley (whom we last encountered apologizing for comments about Jesus) signed the legislation after it passed both houses of the state's Republican-controlled Legislature by a wide margin.

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Advocacy groups promised to challenge the sweeping measure signed by Gov. Robert Bentley on Thursday, which they call even more severe than the one in Arizona that is being challenged in court.

In addition, it requires all businesses to check the legal status of workers using a federal system called E-Verify and makes it a crime to knowingly give an illegal immigrant a ride.

"It is clearly unconstitutional. It's mean-spirited, racist, and we think a court will enjoin it," said Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It takes effect Sept. 1.

Bentley expressed confidence it would withstand any legal challenges.

"We have a real problem with illegal immigration in this country," he said. "I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws, and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country."

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As in an old Perry Mason TV serial, or an Agatha Christie novel, the victim was murdered by multiple killers. The greatest wound may have been inflicted by the Great Recession. With mass unemployment expected to last for years to come, it is hard to imagine public support for an amnesty for the 12 million or so illegal immigrants in the U.S., particularly if it were not accompanied by adequate enforcement and encouraged a new wave of law-breaking by millions of foreign nationals in anticipation of future amnesties.

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Standing at the border Tuesday, Obama mocked Republicans for never being satisfied and always changing the conditions about what's needed to secure the border. Said the president: "Maybe they'll say we need a moat. Or alligators in the moat."

Obama says that stepped-up enforcement is getting results.

Obama used his speech in El Paso, Texas, to push Congress to work with him on a plan to give millions of illegal residents a path to citizenship.

He also said a burden rests with illegal immigrants to do right by the law. He said they make a "mockery" of all those who try to immigrate legally.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

President Barack Obama, visiting the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time as president, is trying to build pressure on Republicans to take on comprehensive immigration legislation -- while showing vital Hispanic voters that he is not the one standing in the way.

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Obama's speech in El Paso will specifically argue for the economic benefits of immigration and the tightening of border controls, according to officials who have previewed the speech. He will push to extend the stay of 1,200 National Guard stationed at the border, Reuters reports, but will also argue for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

With a Republican controlled House, no one is laboring under the impression that a comprehensive immigration reform bill could pass now. And as Politico notes, immigration advocates have called for the president to use his executive powers to "halt deportations of young illegal immigrants who would qualify for the Dream Act" -- a move Obama is resisting. So all it is even possible for the president to offer Tuesday is a stated (but as yet unproven) commitment to immigration reform.

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The president's speech in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, and his visit to a border crossing there, are the latest high-profile immigration events by Obama, who has also hosted meetings at the White House recently with Latino lawmakers, movie stars and others.

It all comes despite an unfavorable climate on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who control the House have shown no interest in legislation that offers a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants.

That's led to criticism that Obama's efforts are little more than politics in pursuit of the ever-growing Hispanic electorate ahead of the 2012 election. White House officials dispute that. They acknowledge the difficulties in getting a bill but say it's likelier to happen if the president creates public support for immigration legislation, leading to pressure on Republican lawmakers.

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The battle for immigrant justice continues. Over two dozen immigrant hate bills have been introduced this year. Several have passed, including a birther bill targeting President Obama. Now business is getting involved. Recently, a letter from Arizona CEOs stopped five draconian immigrant hate bills, including the controversial birthright citizenship repeal. The letter from the CEOs, as well as countless Arizona political observers, business, and Sunday morning political shows, have consistently reported on the effectiveness of the Arizona boycott.

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But according to a vocal group of anti-legislation sympathizers in Arizona's music industry, Sound Strike has done nothing but hurt the community it is theoretically trying to help. By canceling shows, these bands have left non-profit venues in a lurch. By not showing up, these state citizens argue, the musicians involved in Sound Strike missed an opportunity to rally young voters against the bill in the first place.

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