JUST AS SEPTEMBER 11 has hobbled immigration reform, the crisis has, in some ways, helped it. The anti-immigrant backlash has galvanized social-justice activists who didn’t necessarily see the link between their activism and immigration. Those who once fought solely against corporate globalization and workplace injustice are now reaching out to help immigrants. "When something terrible happens," Letonia, of Centro Presente, says, "people can recognize that we have a common foe. The movement has grown despite September 11."

At the same time, the long-time forces behind legalization measures — including labor, religious, immigrant, and even business groups — remain intact. In Boston, nearly 40 organizations still make up the so-called legalization coalition, as they have for the past three years. Though the coalition took a hiatus immediately following September 11, it has recently renewed its push for amnesty for undocumented immigrants. This past spring, it hosted a May Day rally that attracted 500 union members and immigrants, many of them undocumented. This fall, members aim to pitch amnesty to the general public through a series of forums and demonstrations in and around the city. Says Edwin Argueta, an East Boston advocate who heads up the coalition, "We’re now plotting out ways to bring back the legalization issue."

On the national front, immigrant-rights advocates have also stirred from slumber. Just last April, leaders in the labor and business communities, including the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce, staged a Capitol Hill press conference, during which they urged legislators to get back to the business of immigration reform. One month later, in May 2002, advocates in 30 cities — from Boston to San Francisco, from Houston to New York — kicked off a campaign dubbed "A Million Voices for Legalization." Campaign organizers hope to collect one million postcards in favor of "some kind of legalization program" for illegal aliens, all of which will be delivered to President Bush come October. According to organizers, some 250,000 cards have been collected nationwide thus far. The effort, notes Basav Sen, a Boston activist on the legalization coalition, "shows that organized labor — and not just immigrants — still feels strongly that legalization is the solution to the immigration problem."

Advocates like Sen also see signs that the generally hostile sentiment is dissipating. They point to promising developments in the courts, such as the opinion handed down by a three-judge panel at the US Appeals Court in Cincinnati last week declaring it unlawful for the Bush administration to conduct deportation hearings in secret. Since September 11, the Justice Department has conducted hundreds of such hearings, out of sight of the press and the public, by simply asserting that the people involved might be linked to terrorism. The federal decision, says Sen, "indicates a growing challenge in public perception to the notion that all immigrants are bad and have no rights."

And then, there’s the news that politicians are alluding to amnesty initiatives. Last July, US House minority leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) broke the 10-month silence during a speech at the Washington, DC–based National Council of La Raza, a powerful Latino organization. He told La Raza members that the Democratic Party would soon introduce a bill to legalize several million illegal immigrants. As Gephardt explained at the time: "The idea is that, if you are in this country for five years minimum and you have worked for two years and you have played by all the laws ... that you then have an opportunity to engage in what we call ‘earned legalization.’"

Even Bush has returned to the subject. Last month, he and Mexico’s Fox were scheduled to meet at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, where the two could pick up delayed discussions on numerous issues, including immigration. In the end, however, Fox did not show up, in protest against the execution of a Mexican convict who had been languishing on Texas’s death row. Indeed, for immigrant advocates, the president’s nod toward legalization seems generally at odds with his administration’s post–September 11 actions. "It’s a strange dichotomy," MIRA’s Matos admits. But at least legalization has inched its way back onto the Bush agenda.

And in the long run, observers predict that fundamental reform will prevail. For starters, reform makes for good policy. Clearly, the current system doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that some 10 million illegal immigrants live here already. In Massachusetts, advocates estimate that approximately 100,000 of the 773,000 immigrants in this state lack legal papers — a figure that works out to be one in every 34 workers. Whole industries — services, agriculture, apparel — rely on low-wage, immigrant workers; indeed, 50 to 80 percent of the 1.6 million farm workers in the US are illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico. Businesses rely so heavily on immigrant labor that, were all illegal aliens sent back to their homelands today, the US economy would collapse. "Right now," explains Golub, of the AILA, "we have a system that is out of whack with reality. It does not reflect our economic needs, period."

More important, though, reform makes for good politics — right as the 2002 congressional-election season heats up. The 2000 US Census showed that the Latino population, along with other minority groups, had grown significantly over the past decade — and are destined to keep growing. These demographics have given Latinos, in particular, greater political clout. And for them, immigration is a top priority. So as the National Immigration Forum’s Kelley puts it, "Coming up with policies that embrace newcomers while making it safe against terrorism is a must-do for politicians. Reform is the lifeline for both parties if they want to survive."

The open question in the immigration debate is not whether amnesty and other reforms will assume center stage on Capitol Hill again, but when. Legislators, after all, have to deal with reality at some point. Illegal immigrants have become part of everyday American life. They clean our bathrooms, cook our food, take care of our children, and sweep our floors. They work hard, pay taxes, and contribute. Sooner or later, they will refuse to be ignored. So even though immigrants’ rights have suffered setbacks, these issues are bound to re-emerge. It may take time. But, as Golub puts it, "sooner or later, immigration reform has to be addressed. The problems that had existed before September 11 did not end with the attacks."

Kristen Lombardi can be reached at klombardi[a]phx.com