More than 30 local law enforcement agencies around the country have entered agreements with the U.S. government to help enforce federal immigration laws. Twenty-six local agencies have signed up to participate in the government's 287(g) program in just the last year, and 80 more agencies are seeking to join.

The Mexican Consulate of Chicago and the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services today renewed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate their ability to work together to protect the wellbeing of Mexican children in Illinois.

The Los Angeles Times yesterday reported some staggering statistics about the explosion of the U.S. immigrant detention system in the last 12 months.

Citizen Orange has posted transcripts and videos of Senator Richard Durbin speaking about the DREAM Act, how the bill has changed over the years as he's tried to get it passed, and what its future might be after it failed in the Senate yesterday. His last serveral blog posts about the DREAM Act and efforts to push it through Congress are worth a read.

Senators voted this morning on a procedural motion that would have allowed the U.S. Senate to proceed to debate and soon thereafter vote on the DREAM Act. Sixty votes were needed to proceed to debate on the bill; the final vote tally was 52-44.

Late Tuesday evening, the Senate voted to table an amendment offered to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that would have undercut community policing and endangered public safety. The 52-42 procedural vote effectively defeated this amendment, offered by Senator Vitter (R-LA), which attempted to deny Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funding to cities and States that pledge to not ask about the immigration status of crime victims and witnesses.

Vote expected today: Senator Vitter has offered a harmful amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that would undercut community policing and endanger public safety, particularly the safety of immigrants who are victims of domestic and sexual violence.

CNN.com reports today on the government's latest alleged immigration enforcement practice: immigration agents tackle and drug immigrant men and women before they board their planes to be deported. The story says that Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie Meyers reports that 1,073 individuals have been subject to the practice, which the agency calls "medical escort," since 2003.