Immigrant of the Year: The DREAMer
Despite the lack of immigration reform (few seriously expected it to come in an election year), 2012 was far from quiet on the immigration front. While the issue was not discussed as often as some would like during the presidential campaign, immigration did play a part in the political conversation. The year started out with candidates trying to out-conservative each other in the Republican primaries and ended with voters flatly rejecting Mitt Romney's proposal of "self-deportation" and fresh promises from the re-elected president to pursue comprehensive immigration reform in 2013. Outside the rhetoric, both President Obama and the U.S. Supreme Court spoke on the matter, with the former extending deferred action to certain childhood arrivals and the latter striking down the majority of Arizona's anti-immigrant SB 1070. Of course, President Obama also oversaw a record number of deportations in 2012. Regardless of the fears expressed by some, immigrants c