According to the Pew Hispanic Center:

Just over half of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. worry that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported, a new nationwide survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center has found. Nearly two-thirds say the failure of Congress to enact an immigration reform bill has made life more difficult for all Latinos. Smaller numbers (ranging from about one-in-eight to one-in-four) say the heightened attention to immigration issues has had a specific negative effect on them personally. These effects include more difficulty finding work or housing; less likelihood of using government services or traveling abroad; and more likelihood of being asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status.

It's not difficult to understand why Hispanics are feeling this way. Local police departments are taking on federal immigration enforcement, breaking their trust with the communities they are meant to protect and raising concerns over the use of racial profiling. (In the Chicago area, police in the the suburbs of Waukegan, Carpentersville, and Elgin have applied for 287 (g) authorization to allow local police to initiate deportation proceedings against immigrants.) Workplace raids have happened constantly throughout the year, and in recent months home raids are on the rise, accompanied by growing worry over the tactics used by the officers who conduct the raids. Workers continue to fend off policies that could lead to racial profiling in the work place. The immigrant detention population has grown by more than 40 percent in the last year, and reports on deaths in detention raise serious concerns about the conditions inside detention centers. Meanwhile, new detention policies for asylum seekers guarantee that some bona fide asylum seekers may be forced to remain in jail for long periods of time while their cases are adjudicated. And immigrants who want to integrate into American society by becoming permanent residents and citizens now must pay exhorbitant fees, putting these dreams out of reach for many. They also face an inefficient government bureaucracy that has caused massive delays in the adjudication of citizenship cases.

Most of the workplace and neighborhood raids, as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric by politicians and television personalities, have targeted Hispanics. But many of the harmful U.S. immigration policies affect immigrants of all nationalities, denying them basic human rights such as access to legal counsel and a fair day in court, and basic health care while they are detained. When one group of people are deprived of all of these rights, all Americans are at risk, and when such a large proportion of the U.S. population is living in fear at having their rights further eroded, we should all be concerned.

Reflecting true American spirit, however, the Pew study also found that Hispanics in the United States have hope for the future:

Despite their concerns about the impact of the immigration debate, Hispanics are generally content with their own lives and upbeat about the long-term prospects for Latino children.

For generations, families have come to the United States from all over the world with hopes of a brighter future for their children. In return, they have built a nation that is culturally rich and economically prosperous. It is for our children that we must continue fighting to restore human decency to the U.S. immigration system and stand up for the human rights and ideals of justice that make us proud to be Americans.