Lawmakers invoked America's immigrant tradition, paid tribute to their own immigrant ancestors, and talked passionately about how immigrants take jobs nobody else wants. But astronomical dropout rates, gangs, drugs and dead-end jobs cloud their future. And government seems indifferent to their plight. Mayra is celebrating her 15th birthday in traditional Mexican fashion. Salvador Lopez's parents had been ready to send him and his brother back to their native Mexico to avoid the violence and chaos at the public high school.
Experts advocate widely ranging solutions to the problem.
Nearly two years ago, a team of Copley News Service reporters began meeting with immigration experts to examine the most current research on immigration trends. The goal was to discover how America' s newcomers were faring after three decades of high immigration. To get a sharp picture of who is resettling in America and where, the reporters analyzed data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the past 16 years, along with figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. They also fanned out to immigrant communities across the country, from the nation' s capital to California's San Joaquin Valley. But today's immigrants face greater obstacles than their predecessors to move up in society.