Americans overwhelmingly think undocumented immigrants currently in this country should be given a way to legally stay. According to a Pew Research poll, an incredible 71 percent think they should be granted some form of legal status, while only 27 percent oppose allowing them to stay.

The politics of immigration touch upon major faultlines in American society: not just the legal boundary between citizen and foreigner, but also lines of race, class, nationality, culture and, increasingly, gender. Women, who make up about half of the U.S. immigrant population and an estimated 40 percent of undocumented adults, face unique challenges as migrants. However, gender issues have gone almost entirely unremarked in official immigration-reform talks–that is, until a Senate hearing last Monday, when Mee Moua, head of the Asian American Justice Center, seized an opportunity to call out the invisibility of women in the debate.

A possible immigration reform measure got a very important boost this morning when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) endorsed the idea of a pathway to citizenship. To begin with, Paul is a senator and every senator who supports the idea gets the chamber one vote closer to passing a bill.

More importantly, this endorsement by Paul now means a significant number of the top tier possible 2016 Republican Presidential candidates support a pathway to citizenship. This should make it easier for regular rank and file members to get on board with it.

In what is probably one of the fastest flip-flops in political history, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) now says he is actually open to creating a pathway to citizenship as part of comprehensive immigration reform, even though he literally just published a book that called only for creating a pathway to legal residency.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) came out against creating a pathway to citizenship in comprehensive immigration reform. Bush only wants a pathway to legal residency.

During an interview on NBC’s Today show Bush said, “Our proposal is a proposal that looks forward and if we want to create an immigration policy that’s going to work, we can’t continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration. There’s a natural friction between our immigrant heritage and the rule of law. This is the right place to be in that sense. Not to take away people’s rights”

If you really just can’t wait to find out what President Obama is going to talk about in his State of the Union speech this evening, the best indications come from the First Lady’s guest list. Normally the President will refer to the guests during the speech to highlight a particular issue.

There are many benefits to the bully pulpit. The President can easily bring attention to a previously obscure issue and move it to the center of debate in Washington. As the de facto leader of a party the President can also significantly sway the opinions of his base on a range of issues. A big downside, though, is that once the President takes ownership of an issue it is instantly polarized by also turning many Republicans against it.

For the first time ever the minority response to a State of the Union address will be delivered in both English and Spanish. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been selected to give the Republican response.

While most Americans don’t think immigration reform is a top concern at this time, they do overwhelmingly support all the basic components of a potential deal. The vast majority of Americans support creating a way for undocumented immigrants already here to stay, as well as measures to slow undocumented immigration in the future

Republican House members have little personal political incentive to back immigration reform. More than half of House Republicans represent districts that are more than 80 percent white and unless an individual is directly or indirectly touched by the issue they are unlikely to see it as a top priority.