WASHINGTON, D.C. — A unifying challenge reverberated through the National Press Club ballroom Jan. 20 when Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Thomas Saenz delivered MALDEF's  2010 Latino State of the Union message. 

   "We need to fight," he told a luncheon crowd of 300 fellow advocates.

His words came just one day after Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives — struggling against a solid wall of Republican opposition to an historic heath care reform package being prepared for President Obama's signature — lost their single-vote, veto-proof 60-40 edge.

   In a Massachusetts special election to replace the late Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, the GOP's Scott Brown upset Democrat Martha Coakley by 52%-47%.

   Brown's platform promised a "no" vote to whatever legislation, if any, is finally approved by a joint congressional conference committee.   

   The MALDEF luncheon audience, studded with Latino scholars, civic policymakers and advocates, heard Saenz outline his organization's positions on such matters as education (don't ignore Hispanic kids) unemployment compensation (extend it) and census participation (a top priority).

   But the battle cry for comprehensive immigration reform this year remained the driving constant.

   Pleading at high pitch as he seesawed between English and Spanish, special guest U.S. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez rallied the crowd as he made the Hispanic case to Congress and President Obama to pass smart and compassionate legislation that will benefit 12 million undocumented U.S. residents (two-thirds of whom are Latino), the entire, 50-million-strong Hispanic community, and the national economic recovery itself.

   Gutiérrez's immigration reform bill is gradually gaining support in the House. The charismatic Illinois Democrat warned, to vigorous applause,” Never forget the base. If you forget the base, the tent falls right on top of you."

   Gutiérrez emphasized that despite Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, the immigration reform fight is far from over this session.  "The needs are exactly the same. We have to honor our word. Aún en la derrota nosotros no podemos huir de la batalla."

    MALDEF's top lawyer Saenz stressed the growing significance of Latino political involvement. "We expect our national leaders to finish the work that started (with the Civil Rights Act) in 1965. We expect a fair and just future scheme of immigration reform. And we reject the division that seeks to divert our common interest."

   Then a panel of experts expanded on Saenz's Latino State of the Union wish list.

   Among them: national reapportionment authority and former MALDEF president Joaquín Avila, the Department of Labor's Office of Public Engagement director Gabriela Lemus, National Hispanic Leadership Agenda chair Lillian Rodríguez-López, and Pew Hispanic Research Center associate director Mark Hugo López.

   The latter López shared Pew’s latest findings about Latinos in the United States. Among them: their rapidly expanding use of the internet and their mobility away from traditional Hispanic states.

   (Luis Carlos López is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service based in Washington, D.C.)