PHOENIX - In recent weeks the battle lines in the heated national debate over illegal immigration have been drawn on the sidewalk outside an Arizona furniture store.
Mariachis, folk dancers, and placard-toting Latino immigrants face off in front of M.D. Pruitt's Home Furnishings in Phoenix each Saturday against pro-enforcement demonstrators waving-stars-and-stripes flags.
On one side of a police line, the Hispanic activists armed with bull horns protest the use of off-duty sheriff's deputies hired by the store to clamp down on undocumented day laborers who gather outside to tout for work.
Boisterous demonstrators on the other side in the shouting match are supporting local measures to crack down on illegal immigrant workers, called "jornaleros."
But after eight weeks eyeballing one another on the sidewalk, opposing protesters holding placards reading "Close Our Borders" and "No Human Being Is Illegal" agree that the escalating dispute is no longer simply about the furniture store hiring off-duty deputies.
"It's symbolic of what's going on all over the country. People are tired of illegal immigration and our politicians not listening to us," said Valerie Roller, a pro-enforcement activist at the site where sheriff's deputies have made more than 50 arrests since the action began.
Hispanic activists said the protest is now about making a stand for millions of illegal immigrants who they say have been sidelined by Washington, but subject to an increasing number of state and local laws.
"It's about supporting the people who are here to work and not starve in Mexico," said artist Luis Gutierrez.
The standoff began in mid-October, several months after Congress rejected a bill seeking to tighten border enforcement and grant a path to legal status for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows.
In the interim, state and local authorities nationwide have stepped into the gap. So far this year, more than 240 immigration-related laws have passed in 46 states.
Immigration is a hot-button issue in the United States, and the topic has flared frequently in debate among Republican and Democratic candidates battling to be their party's candidate in the 2008 presidential election.
The politicians are walking a careful line between appeasing anti-immigration sentiment and trying not to turn off Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing bloc in this nation of immigrants.
Some observers watching the standoff in Phoenix say the dispute raises serious questions about the consequences of government deadlock over immigration and, more particularly, on using local police to enforce federal immigration laws.
Under a special agreement, federal immigration police have trained about 600 officers from 34 local agencies to enforce immigration laws, including more than 160 sheriff's deputies from Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
The deputies have arrested more than 530 illegal immigrants under the federal laws, while another 780 have been nabbed under a state antismuggling law.
The mayor of Phoenix, meanwhile, recently proposed reversing a longstanding policy that prevented city police from inquiring, in most cases, about a person's immigration status. It is currently under review.
Latino leaders say the actions risk alienating members of the local Hispanic community, both legal and illegal, making them more reluctant to report crimes and more likely to be subject to racial profiling by officers.
"I see a tremendous gulf opening up between the Hispanic community and the police department," according to activist Santos Chavez.
