There are massive demonstrations taking place around the U.S. today seeking a voice at the table for civil rights and fairness as Congress and America debate immigration reforms.

One thing that has been puzzling me for the past couple of weeks is, why immigration and why now? Why is this issue suddenly in the national spotlight?

Being the cynical old guy that I am, I have a theory.

See, 9/11 changed everything. But the trouble is, we can't see the enemy because he's sneaky and doesn't wear a uniform or fly a flag. So we started a war in Iraq to look for him and his alleged WMD that were a clear and present danger to America, but came up empty handed.

So, the Bush's administration's johnny-one-note-riding-a-one-trick-pony strategery of using the War on Terror to justify everything from torture to illegal detentions to illegal spying on U.S. citizens to massive deficit spending to no-bid contract corruption is clearly a failure, and the people are on to them. The War on Terror isn't playing so well, or at all any more, with voters.

Meanwhile, the GOP controlled Congress has been trying to choke the life out of the big-spending enemy-of-the-people federal government, and out of old people, sick people, and poor people in the process. The people are on to their borrow-and-spend tax-cuts-for-the-rich game, too.

So, what to do about a failed War on Terror and a failed right-wing agenda/Contract on America looming large over mid-term elections in which the GOP could very well lose control of the House, possibly even setting up an impeachment scenario?

Create a new enemy, of course.

Deep in the bowels of some right-wing think-tank, someone came with the idea: immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are the perfect enemy.

They're all around us, everywhere you look, right in your own communities and neighborhoods, maybe even in your own back yard doing some landscaping. They're mostly brown people, too. Not only that, there's talk they are plotting a new civil war to take back Texas! (Seriously, I'm not making that up.)

So, while this has been going on for years, and nobody's been talking about it except Lou Dobbs, and nobody would argue with the fact that the U.S. needs a rational immigration policy, suddenly it's the greatest threat to America since Al Qaeda. So let's everybody rally around the nationalist flag and get behind the strong, steady leadershp of the GOP to defeat this latest "insurgency" right here on our own soil.

Not only that, the "enemy" is virtually powerless (a fact that their employers here have been exploiting for years). And most important of all, they can't even vote!

That's my theory, anyway. I could be wrong.