By Maria Peña

WASHINGTON – The White House has breathed new life into a movement by progressives who with “parties” and a massive telephone conference are promoting comprehensive immigration reform, but only time will tell whether their efforts produce the desired effect by the beginning of 2010.

The statement last Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in favor of reform seemed geared to get the reform project in motion before the midterm legislative elections of November 2010.

At stake is the fate of 12 million immigrants who, Napolitano acknowledged, deserve “to come out of the shadows” and contribute to the economic prosperity of the United States.

Several independent studies have shown that immigrants, by paying millions in taxes, contribute to the economy in their communities and states. Congressmen know that but they also know that by supporting reform they are gambling with their own reelections.

The nation is witnessing, therefore, the old battle between groups in favor and against reform, which will be largely decided by the political capital that President Barack Obama invests in it.

For Wednesday, “tens of thousands” of activists of the “Reform Immigration for America” campaign have organized a telephone conference to outline the national strategy, and from the outset they promise that this time it will be different and much more energetic.

Taking part in the teleconference will be Democratic Reps. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Nydia Velazquez of New York, all well-known nationally and whose states have a strong Hispanic presence.

This “national conversation” will connect homes, churches, schools and community centers in more than 325 towns across the United States.

That does not include the more than 650 parties in favor of reform organized by the campaign.

Beyond its worthy objectives and intentions, little is known about the bill that Gutierrez plans to present next month, and the million-dollar queston is whether reform will finally be approved.

The failed attempt at reform in 2007 exposed the ideological chasm between Democrats and Republicans – and within both parties – on how to deal with the presence of clandestine immigrants.

Time has not erased these divisions, and conservative groups are doing everything in their power to get the government to continue its iron-fisted policy against immigrants.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, an ultraconservative group, has made it clear that it has staying power and will not abandon its campaign against any “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.

The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, ALI-PAC, was already organizing street protests last Saturday and while it didn’t attract crowds, it did show that the conservative movement is alive and well.

But the immigrant community has reason to be hopeful – pro-reform activists have managed, for now, to silence one of its bitterest critics, the conservative pundit Lou Dobbs, who has just resigned from the CNN network.

Napolitano told the Center for American Progress last week that Obama remains committed to reform and will actively promote it at the beginning of 2010.

Last Sunday, just in case the message wasn’t clear enough, the chief political adviser of the White House, David Axelrod, said on CNN that there is strong backing in Congress for reform.

That backing will determine whether the parties being held now will end with a great celebration – or in defeat – for pro-immigrant groups. EFE