North Carolina's employers are enthusiastic beneficiaries of the newcomers' willingness to work. The influx carries costs, too, for taxpayers and blue-collar workers.

School budgets are feeling the pressure of educating students who are often poor and have little if any command of English. Critics wonder whether the spending is justified.

Small-town ways can seem changeless, and many natives like it that way. But some rural areas in North Carolina are having to adapt in a hurry to a wave of newcomers with a new language, new customs and new expectations. Case in point: Warsaw.

In a report in January on the economic impact of Hispanic immigration in North Carolina, researchers at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill estimated the state's 2004 cost for health services provided to all Hispanics, legal or otherwise, at $299 million.

In North Carolina, where the illegal immigrant population is climbing toward a half-million, businesses are tailoring their products and tweaking their policies to reach the newcomers.

As the immigration debate heats up across the country, a new study shows Latinos in Charlotte-Mecklenburg are as divided over immigration reform as any other group -- and possibly more so.

Ronald Bilbao will remember his 21st birthday not for gifts that he received, but for one that he gave.

Some state community college leaders say they want to reopen their doors to illegal immigrants.

Most refugees, who come to the United States as legal immigrants, say they still see this as the land of opportunities. It is taking most at least six months to find a job, and even those who are employed are facing reduced hours, long commutes or no benefits.

Nearly two dozen residents, including mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx, participated in a pilot event Thursday night designed to simulate the illegal immigrant experience.