The number of illegal immigrants arriving in the United States has declined from about 800,000 a year earlier this decade, to about 500,000 a year from 2005 to 2008, said the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington.

The findings reverse a decade-long trend where more illegal immigrants arrived in the United States than legal immigrants.

The total number of illegal immigrants — which also includes millions who came legally to the United States and overstayed their visas — appears to have declined since last year — from 12.4 million in 2007 to 11.9 million in 2008. However, the finding is “inconclusive” because of the margin of error in the estimates, the study said.

The study also found:

— Illegal immigrants comprise about 4 percent of the U.S. population and about 30 percent of the nation’s foreign-born population. More than 39 million people born in other countries live in the United States.

— The vast majority of illegal immigrants — four out of five — come from Latin American countries.

— The number of illegal immigrants from Mexico appears to have leveled off since last year at around 7 million.

Read the study here.

The effort targeted violent street gangs in 53 cities across 28 states, federal officials said.

“Street gangs prey on the neighborhoods in which they operate and they instill fear through intimidation and violence,” said Julie Myers, who heads ICE. “By partnering with other law enforcement agencies across the country, we are successfully targeting these gangs, arresting their leaders, disrupting their operations, and putting their members and associates behind bars.”

Of the 1,759 people arrested, nearly 1,500 were gang members, associates or those otherwise criminally charged, ICE said.

Read the ICE press release here.

Read a story about the operation here.

It is dubbed the “Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act.”

Immigrant advocates are hailing the legislation.

Ben Johnson, director of the American Immigration Law Foundation, said that the group “applauds Senators Menendez and Kennedy’s efforts to reintroduce the rule of law and the basic principles of fairness and humanity to the enforcement of our country’s immigration laws…Due process and equal treatment under the law are fundamental rights that our country has stood for and are at the heart of the Menendez-Kennedy bill.”

Solis said: “We need a fighter like Barack Obama. We need to have someone in the White House that will fight for us to provide good medical coverage, will advocate protecting a woman’s right to choose, and help us push crucial women’s rights legislation through Congress.”

She also said that Obama is the son of immigrants, like many Hispanics and Latinos and “shares many values with the Latino community.”

Longoria, who previously supported Sen. Hillary Clinton, also commented on Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.

“I’m very confused by the women who have turned their support to Palin because Hillary did not get on the ticket. Palin, for me, represents everything Hillary is not. I don’t know how a woman can support someone who does not support equal pay for women, or the right to choose,” Longoria said.

The English-language video is more than 5 minutes long. See it here:

The debate will be translated for the Spanish-speaking audience.

“TeleFutura is proud to present this very important event live to our viewers from coast to coast,” said Bert Medina, senior vice president and operating manager of the network. “Hispanics are sure to play a crucial role in this election and we are pleased to be able to provide our audience the opportunity to see the candidates together for the first time.”

TeleFutura reaches 85 percent of U.S. Hispanic households, according to a press release. It is part of Univision Communications, Inc.

The campaign is called “Adelante” which means “move forward.” It will include “saturation-level” statewide radio spots in several states including Colorado, according to a press release.

See the campaign’s new website here.

An increase in Latino voters would mostly help Democrats because Hispanics generally tend to favor Democrats by a 2 to 1 margin over Republicans.

“The campaign will both encourage people to vote and explain the process of voting, including early and absentee voting, to what is projected to be a large pool of first-time Hispanic voters,” said the release.

The groups launched a new website — www.YoVotare.org — which will serve “as a one-stop portal to connect Latinos with various unprecedented efforts to register new voters, provide voter information and education tools, and increase voter turnout in November,” the groups said, in a press release.

The groups involved in the effort include the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the National Council of La Raza, the Univision television network, and many others.

Political analysts say that Latinos could be a crucial voting bloc in several contested states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida.

He said the bill needs to include provisions to “verify the legal residency and identity of potential homebuyers to ensure that illegal aliens are not obtaining federally backed home loans - and that taxpayers are not absorbing the debts of illegal aliens, or bad loans made by banks to illegal aliens.”

“If such protections are not included in the package, I hope you will join me in opposing its passage,” he said, in a letter.

See the letter here.

The Mexican government spends more than $1 million on the programs targeted to Mexican immigrants in the United States. They “provide a lifeline for adult students with little formal education by helping them become literate in Spanish - and by extension, English,” the story says.

Read it here.

The poll — which showed a tight race overall — showed that McCain is favored by Hispanics 51 to 41 percent. However, the poll’s margin of error is 10.6 percentage points.

Nationwide, Obama is handily beating McCain among Latinos, according to various polls. Florida is different, though, because many of its Cuban-American residents tend to be Republicans.

Roland Sanchez-Medina, vice president of the Cuban-American Bar Association, told the Miami Herald that “Obama’s current drag among Hispanics could hurt the Democratic Party’s chances of unseating three South Florida Cuban-American Republicans in Congress — Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.”

Read the story here.

The survey also found that 81 percent of Hispanic adults said that immigration enforcement should be left mainly to the federal authorities and not local police. In addition, 76 percent said they disapprove of workplace raids.

See more of the survey results here.

Read a story about the Pew report here.

The U.S. Constitution states that only “natural-born” citizens can become president. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, leading some to question his ability to run for the nation’s highest office.

According to AP, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the law at the time of McCain’s birth automatically granted citizenship to offspring of U.S. citizens.

Read the AP story here.

Read a previous story about the legal questions surrounding McCain’s birth here.

The ad will air in Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, Obama campaign officials said.

The ad says that McCain and “his Republican friends” have “two faces” when it comes to Latinos.

The ad shows a picture of Limbaugh with a quote underneath which says, “Mexicans — stupid and unqualified.” A narrator says that McCain wants Latinos to forget “the insults” and “the intolerance.”

Hessy Fernandez, McCain’s spokesperson for Hispanic media, denounced the ad as “hypocritical and desperate.”

“Sen. McCain never used that kind of rhetoric,” she said. “Sen. McCain took a lot of heat, at great political risk, for this issue.”

See the ad here, as featured on the Washington Post web site:

The Obama ad is a reaction to a McCain Spanish language ad that blames Obama for the demise of an immigration bill last year. Obama’s campaign said Tuesday the ad was untruthful. Here it is:

Salinas asked Obama whether he supports a moratorium on immigration raids.

Here is his answer: “Raids are a publicity stunt, they are a tactic to push people away from focusing on the failures of the immigration system as a whole. What we have to do is to have a comprehensive immigration plan that has strong border security; that cracks down on employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers…We’ve got to crack down on them, and we’ve got to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, making sure that they over time are able to earn their position here in the United States of America.”