Once touted by conservatives as the number one wedge issue, immigration has slipped off the table in these 2008 presidential elections. In part, this is because conservative candidates across the country lost when they tried to make immigrant-bashing a winning issue. (Witness the 2006 losing campaigns of Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and John Hostettler of Indiana, as examples.)

“This is a bit more civilized than usual,” one attendee could be heard saying upon entering the auditorium for the Federal Communications Commission event in New York City on Tuesday. Unlike the emotional collection of media activists, protestors, concerned citizens and artists (some of whom directed hisses and sneers at FCC Chair Kevin Martin) who attended any one of the public hearings held by the commission over the past year, this one featured mostly suits and ties, all of whom coolly assembled without fanfare at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.