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CHICAGO The San Jose Mercury News has ventured to say what everyone is taking as a foregone conclusion: Immigration reform appears dead for 2014. I hate to admit it sure looks that way.

Over the past 10 years, the so-called immigration debate a more descriptive term would be fact-challenged shouting match has evolved little and now seems to be devolving.

Now the helplessness surrounding the issue is palpable and the tactics that immigration activists use to rally the troops have proved to have little effect.

Its hard to remember, but in the winter of 2004 the big stories centered around President George W. Bushs principles for the immigration overhaul he worked so hard, in vain, to pass and whether the Sierra Club should advocate tough immigration restrictions in order to control environmental damage along the borders. Many people were chattering about the upcoming Sergio Arau movie, A Day Without a Mexican, released in May of that year.

Mobilization against the Bush proposal began in 2005 when Wisconsin Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner sponsored a bill that would have made assisting unlawful immigrants illegal. It threatened to make criminals of the medical establishment, religious communities and legal immigrants who gave succor to the unlawfully present.

Then came the big immigration reform marches of 2006, which upset many because crowds took to the streets waving the flags of foreign countries. Bushs reform effort failed the following summer. Subsequent marches gave way to a three-pronged effort by immigrant advocates: to make voting the tool for change; recruit coalitions of law enforcement, business and religious leaders to push for reform; and, as a last-ditch effort, try for legislation that would at least give immigrants who came to this country as young children a path to citizenship. You know how that turned out.

And here we are again, beginning another loop that starts with a lame-duck president, upcoming election naysayers and a less-than-fired-up electorate.

Its true: Immigration is not at the top of the agendas of Americas policymakers.

President Obama, flummoxed by intractable international troubles, a sluggish economy and problems with his health care program, was recently denounced as the deporter in chief by some of the same high-profile Latino advocates who practically promised Hispanic voters hed pass reform in his first term.

But now jobs, the economy and health care take precedence over immigration. And those who do think about immigration reform have mixed feelings. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that nearly three-quarters of Americans think that immigrants living here illegally should be allowed to stay if they meet certain requirements. At the same time, nearly half of respondents said the increased deportations under the Obama administration are a good thing.

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Esther Cepeda: Not at the top of agendas, immigration reform shelved again