-- from The Associated Press:

The national mood on immigration has changed dramatically since Arizona approved a first-of-its-kind immigration law, igniting a furor over border security and the country’s treatment of immigrants.

A mere three years later, President Barack Obama and Republicans and Democrats in Congress are lobbying for the nation’s first immigration overhaul in nearly three decades — and public opinion is on their side.

-- by Seung Min Kim, Politico:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano mounted a vigorous defense of the Senate Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration plan on Tuesday, calling the legislation an “important first step” to reforming the nation’s immigration laws.

-- by Emily Schultheis, Politico.com:

The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

-- by Ted Hesson, ABC/Univision:

A change being proposed as part of an immigration reform bill in the Senate might have helped the U.S. keep a closer watch on one of suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

--  by Ian Reifowitz, The Huffington Post:

You may be familiar with Samuel Huntington. He's the political scientist who, in his last years, offered dire warnings that Hispanic and especially Mexican immigrants behave profoundly differently than immigrants coming to the U.S. from other countries, that they stubbornly refuse to integrate to such a degree that they will ultimately "divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages." Huntington referred to this problem as "The Hispanic Challenge."

For years, the dominant trope in the media followed Huntington's line. It didn't matter that scholars were demonstrating that Huntington was wrong. As early as 2007 there was this article in the academic journal Perspectives in Politics called "Testing Huntington: Is Hispanic Immigration a Threat to American Identity?" In short, the answer was: No. The authors found:

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-- by Benjy Sarlin, TPM.com:

The Senate “Gang of 8” has done its job in producing a bipartisan immigration bill. Now they just have to convince Republicans to vote for it. To that end, pro-reform lawmakers and interest groups are launching a massive, co-ordinated effort to address every possible conservative concern about the bill — and undermine the opponents stoking them.

Conversations with activists and senators this month as well as their own public efforts reveal a deep playbook designed to address skeptics from every possible angle. Here are a few of the major avenues they’re pursuing.

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-- from AllAccess.com:

As the percent of Hispanics who use mobile devices continues to climb, even more impressive is Internet radio's reach with the growing Hispanic market.  Findings from a top-10 market study reveal that 32.7% of all Hispanics have logged on in the past month to an Internet radio website such as PANDORA RADIO, iHEARTRADIO, RADIO.COM or SLACKER.COM. The figure represents 4.2 million Hispanic Internet radio listeners in THE MEDIA AUDIT's top-10 markets.

-- by Chris Good, ABC News:

In any other week, today would be a landmark for immigration reform -- but as more information emerges about the suspects tied to the Boston Marathon bombings, momentum for action on immigration seems to have taken a hit.

At least one senator suggested that attacks by foreign-born suspects should put the brakes on Washington's current push for immigration reform.

"Given the events of this week, it's important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a hearing on immigration reform today. "While we don't yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system. How can individuals evade authority and plan such attacks on our soil?

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-- a New York Times editorial:

Much of the country was still waking up to the mayhem and confusion outside Boston on Friday morning when Senator Charles Grassley decided to link the hunt for terrorist bombers to immigration reform. 

“How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?” asked Mr. Grassley, the Iowa Republican, at the beginning of a hearing on the Senate’s immigration bill. “How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the U.S.?”

The country is beginning to discuss seriously the most sweeping overhaul of immigration since 1986, with hearings in the Senate last week and this week, and a possible vote by early summer. After years of stalemate, the mood has shifted sharply, with bipartisan Congressional coalitions, business and labor leaders, law-enforcement and religious groups, and a majority of the public united behind a long-delayed overhaul of the crippled system.

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-- by Jordan Fabian, ABC/Univision:

If you work at a Hispanic media outlet, the chances are House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) followed you on Twitter Friday afternoon.