Federal immigration officials now say illegal immigrants who are arrested on minor traffic violations and have no criminal history will no longer automatically face detention.

Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that immigration agents would only consider detaining people if they were convicted of traffic offenses.

The policy change is part of the Department of Homeland Security's response to a report by a task force on a federal fingerprinting program. The report—issued in September 2011—said that deportations for minor offenses were inconsistent with the department's priorities. The report concluded that deportations for minor offenses, such as speeding or driving without a license, carried out under the Secure Communities program were undermining trust between immigrant communities and the local authorities.

The immigration changes came just a few days after the Supreme Court heard the Obama administration's arguments against the controversial Arizona immigration law, which would compel law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of those suspected of being illegal immigrants.

The New York Times reported that administration officials point to Secure Communities as an example of enforcement at the federal level, which makes state level policing of immigration counterproductive.

Appearing before the Supreme Court, the Justice Department argued that Arizona setting up its own state policy was "attrition by enforcement," which would lead to illegal immigrants leaving the state for neighboring states. Critics of the law have argued that it encourages racial profiling.

As the U.S. Supreme Court took up consideration of an argument related to Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, representatives from the Idaho Community Action Network and American Civil Liberties Union Idaho assembled at the corner of Bannock and Eighth streets in Boise.

"I'm here today to state that the Supreme Court should not allow our rights to be undermined," said ICAN member Alicia Clements. "SB 1070 encourages racial profiling."

• ICAN member Alicia Clements denounces the Arizona immigration law passed in 2011.

Clements and a dozen other protesters implored the Supreme Court to strike down the law outright. But according to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the court's proceedings, justices appear skeptical that the law is unconstitutional.

The Times' David Savage wrote:

The Obama administration lawyer who wanted the entire law struck down ran into skeptical questions from most of the justices, who said they saw no problem with requiring police officers to check the immigration status of people who are stopped.

But the justices also said they were troubled by parts of the Arizona law that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to not carry documents or seek work. The stop-and-arrest provision has been the most contested part of the law.

• The ACLU's Leo Morales called the Arizona law "unconstitutional."

However, opponents of Arizona's measure say the "show me your papers" law encourages racial profiling. They say that the measure encourages law enforcement to stop non-caucasian citizens to check their immigration status.

"Essentially, it forces all Americans to carry their papers," said Leo Morales with ACLU Idaho. "It threatens our civil liberties, betrays our American values and is unconstitutional."

The Supreme Court is expected to decide on the controversial law as early as June.

A new study indicates that the net migration to and from Mexico and the United States has dipped to zero.

The report from the Pew Hispanic Center reveals that approximately 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States between 2005 and 2010, roughly the same number of Mexicans who returned home over the same period.

Additionally, the study indicates that the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico dropped from its peak of 7 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2011. The report cites a drastic decline in Mexican birth rates and a bad American economy as reasons for the drop. A higher percentage of deported migrants said in the survey that they would not attempt to come back into the United States.

The United States' estimated 12 million Mexican immigrants represent the largest chunk of immigrants in any country in the world. Mexico has sent more immigrants to the States over the past four decades than any other nation.

New federal rules, expected to be made public on Monday, will propose that undocumented immigrants who are immediate relatives of citizens could stay in the United States while applying for permanent residency. The Obama administration said late Friday that the move could affect as many as 1 million of an estimated 11 million immigrants living here illegally.

Currently, undocumented immigrants must leave the country to apply for a legal visa, often leading to extended isolation from their families. The new proposal would allow an individual to remain the country as they applied for legal status. Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly - approximately one week - to return to their native country and pick up their visa. The White House hopes to have the new procedures in place by the end of the year.

Last December, the U.S. Senate killed Obama's proposed Dream Act, a law that would have created a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who are enrolled in the military or U.S. colleges.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that American children are being denied food stamps as a result of a new Alabama Law.

Five people have called into the SPLC hot line saying they were denied assistance because they couldn't prove they were legal residents, even though the food stamps were for their children, who are U.S. citizens. The civil-rights group now plans to file suit over the matter. They have already lodged to lawsuits against the Alabama law.

Simply put, the Alabama law makes it a felony for a government employee to engage in "business transactions" with undocumented immigrants, which some government employees are interpreting rather broadly. The undocumented immigrants have been told they can't even pay utility bills or taxes because they would count as "transactions."

Several parts of the controversial law have been temporarily blocked pending review from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but the "business transaction" prohibition was left standing.

The Idaho Community Action Network applauded the Obama administration’s plans to issue a rule change that would keep families together while members work to gain permanent U.S. residency.

If passed, the rule would drastically shorten the amount of time undocumented immigrants wait for waivers that would readmit them to the country. Currently, undocumented immigrants must leave the country before they can submit an application to waive the three- to 10-year ban on readmittance to the country.

“The difference of what the Obama administration is trying to do is give families as much time together as possible,” said Renato Castelo of ICAN. Now you can apply for the waiver here in the U.S.

In the meantime, their families struggle to make do without husbands, wives, brothers and sisters—families like the Reyes of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Miquel Reyes went back to Mexico in August 2011, leaving his wife Loren and 2-year-old daughter Ruth behind. He’s still waiting on his application.

While a group of stakeholders and lawmakers prepare to introduce new immigration-based legislation before Idaho's 2012 legislative session, the U.S. Supreme Court will have its first opportunity today to consider the issue of undocumented workers and their children.

The State of Arizona is asking the high court to allow the state to begin enforcing a series of measures that have, to date, been blocked by lower courts. Among the controversial provisions is an Arizona law that requires police, "while enforcing other laws," to question a person's immigration status if lawmen suspect the suspect is in the country illegally.

Similar laws were crafted in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

But the White House said regulating immigration is the job of the federal government, not states.

Idaho was included in a nationwide sweep today in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 2,901 undocumented residents of the United States who were wanted on outstanding warrants. Details have not been released on local arrests. The arrests capped a week-long operation in all 50 states and four U.S. territories.

Law enforcement said all those who were arrested had criminal convictions and more than 1,600 had felony convictions, including manslaughter, attempted murder and drug trafficking.

"The rests of this targeted enforcement operation underscore ICE's ongoing commitment and focus on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens and those that game our nation's immigration system," said ICE Director John Morton.

President Obama, traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border today, says he wants to restart the immigration debate, leading to comprehensive reform.

In 2008, Latino voters overwhelmingly supported Obama's presidential bid. Exit polls tracked a 67 percent Hispanic edge toward the Democratic ticket. At the time, Obama promised Latinos that he would aggressively push for passage of a comprehensive immigration bill during his first year in office.

Today, Obama said his administration doubled the number of patrol agents along the border and deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year. But at the same time, the president argued that current immigration laws are keeping skilled workers from contributing to the U.S. economy.

Idaho senior U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo told Citydesk that he sees a guest worker program as the ultimate solution.

"In my conversations with Idaho's ag community, it's very, very clear that they would be supportive of a guest worker program," said Crapo. "We're looking for a program that would ensure a safe harbor for employers by knowing that someone they were about to hire was in the United State legally."

On Dec. 7, headlines like this one at Politico were rampant: “GOP Rises, Dream Act Falters.” But the very next day, the Dream Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives 216 to 198.

Since that historic vote there have been continued media reports of the bill’s demise. The Idaho Statesman ran an AP story on Dec. 11 saying the bill had been shelved. On Thursday, even NPR’s Neal Conan, who hosts Talk of the Nation, insisted the Dream Act was dead, upbraiding a panel of Dream-eligible students, who stood their ground.

Dream Act supporters have fought rumors of the measure's demise for nearly a decade now.

“That story has been written since the House vote—and we won the House vote,” said Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center. Moran, who lives in Boise, was in Washington, D.C., this week helping to orchestrate a huge grassroots lobby effort for final passage of the Dream Act.