All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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Having spent most of my life in Minnesota, I have to admit that stories about illegal immigration and the border always seemed very far away. They were. My recent trip to Arizona for our “Immigration Nation” piece was an eye-opener. Protestors hurling insults at Mexican day-laborers and calling the people who hire them “traitors.”

Arizona has become a real fault line in the debate over illegal immigration. The state has adopted one of the toughest immigration laws in the country. Instead of simply being fined for hiring illegal workers, businesses can now be shut down. By almost all estimates the law is working. Bus loads of illegal and legal workers are streaming out of the state.

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Independence Day means many things to many people. And it certainly means a great deal to our country's immigrants, who were integral in Fourth of July celebrations past — and are also in the present.

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The word "amnesty" helped kill President Bush's immigration bill. It serves as a reminder that sometimes the wrong words can scuttle the right policies.

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Sometime "Couric & Co." contributor and fulltime Washington producer Ward Sloane has the First Look at tonight's Evening News, which includes an overview of the immigration bill's defeat, and what that may mean for President Bush.

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Sharyl Attkisson is the Capitol Hill Correspondent for CBS News.

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I was with a group of Senators last night who SUPPORT the immigration bill. They divided up names of Republican fence-sitters and called them on the phone hoping to get their commitment to a "yes" vote today to proceed on immigration.

"It's the most fluid of fluid situations," said one Republican Senator. "Everyone is terrified" about what the immigration bill will do to them at home...because so many constituents are against it.

Last night, according to Senate sources, President Bush personally called five Republican Senators. "The White House is in overdrive and is burning the midnight oil," a source told me. This, despite President Bush's prediction earlier this week that immigration would pass.

Some Republicans are disappointed in what they consider "lack of leadership" from their Senate leader Mitch McConnell. Democrats called McConnell "missing in action" during the push for the vote, while the Democrat leader Senator Harry Reid has been out front.

CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod previews tonight's top stories including a new study linking the diabetes drug Avandia to heart attacks and the immigration policy debate raging in D.C.

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Sharyl Attkisson is the Capitol Hill Correspondent for CBS News.

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Listen closely to the talk on Capitol Hill the next few days and you just may hear the sounds of immigration reform dying a slow death, at least until 2009. Here's why.

CBS News has learned a core group of Democrats and Republicans has been holding lengthy talks with White House officials. Their goal was to write a bill that, unlike last year's effort, would be a bipartisan work product at the outset and, in theory, stand the best chance of being embraced by all sides in the immigration equation.

The group includes key players in the debate: Senator Kyl-R, a chief opponent of last year's failed immigration reform bill; Senator Salazar-D, who wrote it; and Senator Isakson-R. who wants nothing done until the border is secured. Also in the meetings: Senators Graham-R, Kennedy-D, Menendez-D, Cornyn-R, Feinstein-D and Specter-R. The White House was represented by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

The group met for hours two or three times a week for the past two months. They argued, negotiated, and compromised, and did it all without holding press conferences or spinning their positions. The details are still being finessed. But at last word, the plan included some important differences over last year's attempt...

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Sandra Hughes is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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In the past year, our Government has stepped up its immigration enforcement efforts, resulting in more than 200,000 deportations. But many of these illegal immigrants are leaving something behind: their children. Born in the U.S., these kids are automatically US citizens. And though no one can tell us how many have stayed behind, we know they are out there. Our CBS News team met three of them last Friday afternoon at their home in San Diego. 16-year-old Leslie, 13-year-old Marcos and 9-year-old Adeline Munoz are struggling to get by without their parents who have been deported to Mexico.

Abel and Zulma came here 18 years ago on a temporary visa with a sick infant who later died. They overstayed the visa and had three more children. They had purchased a home, paid taxes, and joined community groups. Abel worked as an electrician, while Zulma volunteered at her children’s school. They decided it was time to come out from the shadows, to become legal citizens. So they hired a lawyer to make their case. But a judge denied their petition, and, unbeknownst to the Munoz’s, placed them on a list of visa violators that were ordered for deportation.

The family was spending an evening at home last February when there was a knock at the door. Marcos, the 13-year-old son, was the first to see who it was. He ran upstairs, out of breath and said to his sister, “They are here!”. “Who?” she asked him. “Immigration”, he answered. “NO!” was all she could get out. Officers from Immigration Customs Enforcement filled their house, handcuffed their father and removed the parents from the home. The children were left in the custody of an aunt.

But it is 16-year-old Leslie who has taken on the responsibilities of her parents: paying the bills, making sure the younger two finish their school work. It has become a terrible burden for her. Although there are five bedrooms in the house, the three kids all sleep in their parent’s room, to comfort one another in their parents’ absence. But the comfort of her older brother and sister are not enough for nine year old Adeline. The day before our visit, Adeline had a birthday (turning 8 to 9, the same age as my own daughter) I asked her if they had celebrated her birthday. She said no, and with a tear in her eye, told me she didn’t want to celebrate her birthday without her parents...

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Kelly Cobiella is a CBS News Correspondent based in Dallas. She's reporting on the issue of illegal immigration for tonight's CBS Evening News. Here's a preview.

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The border near Yuma Arizona looks like a militarized zone. You don’t realize it when you first drive into San Luis, the small border town cut in half by an international boundary. There’s a bustling main street feeding right into Mexico. That’s the legal crossing. A few blocks away on either side, the view changes: three rows of fencing, stadium lights, border patrol trucks reinforced with metal grates, and National Guard camps complete with camouflage netting.

On the day we arrived, five men climbed the first ten foot fence and dropped down into the U.S. It was the middle of the afternoon, and it didn’t take long for a border patrol agent to spot them. Two were caught. The other three must have mistaken the SUV my photographer Max Stacy was driving for an unmarked border patrol truck, because as soon as he approached they ran back to the fence, one flashing a peace sign as he disappeared into Mexico. At least, we think it was the peace sign. They didn’t throw rocks.

I couldn’t help but wonder what life was like on the other side of that fence. We crossed the border into Mexico to find out. I was surprised to find it looks like a typical neighborhood. A row of homes sits not thirty feet from the border. There are barking dogs and chatty neighbors and children walking home from school. No police. People told me the only rock throwers they’d seen were kids making trouble. But along one stretch of fence was a stack of more than a hundred brick pavers, just like the ones that seem to be magnets for border patrol agents on the other side. The woman living across from this stack of bricks told me the pile is part of a makeshift patio where she and her family sit in the evenings.

It was clear no one on the Mexican side wanted to talk about smugglers. They’re either oblivious or afraid. I’m betting on the latter.

We get a lot of e-mails about Katie’s hair, makeup, clothes, lighting, shoes and the way she sits on the desk. So imagine our surprise when we got one that wasn’t about any of those things. It’s a lengthy comment on last night’s freeSpeech. Take a look. – Ed.

I also heard the freeSpeech segment on your show and I have read all the comments made. Honestly, I am one of those undocumented here in the U.S.

My story is a bit similar to his but with a twist…

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