Even those idealists who still believe it is possible for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation within the next year - even those dreamers who persist that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to Hispanic voters by finding a way to legalize some 12 million undocumented immigrants - yes, even the optimists are beginning to sound like pessimists.

Now they speak of a very small window of time - near the end of February and beginning of March - when it might be possible for a majority of Democrats and a handful of Republicans finally to do the right thing about fixing the nation's broken immigration system.

But it's as if they are describing some sort of time gate in a science fiction movie. If we don't make it through this political time corridor, we're stuck in a country in which millions of immigrants will be forced to continue hiding in the shadows, performing only the most menial jobs and leaving huge gaps in our national security.

And why is the window for reforming immigration going to be so narrow? Because Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress already have nearly shut one side by spending so much time and political capital on health care reform and other priorities and because the other side of the window is likely to be shut down very early next year by cowardly politicians who will not want to deal with such a controversial issue in the months before the 2010 midterm elections.

That leaves congressional proponents of comprehensive immigration reform only a couple of months, in the beginning of next year, to introduce, debate, amend and pass legislation on not only an issue that already has proved to be one of the most controversial of our time but also one on which Congress already has proved to be totally dysfunctional.

Is this a realistic expectation? Of course not! Even after health care is out of the way, early next year, immigration will have to compete for political attention with other crucial issues, such as energy, banking regulation, global warming and perhaps another stimulus package that actually will create jobs!

The national debate over health care reform has polarized the country, driven out hordes of extremists, taken much longer than expected and - because of the personal attacks against our first black president - even widened the racial divide in this country. But compared with the upcoming fight over immigration, the health care fight may come to be regarded as a time of peace, equality and tranquility.

Yet many Democrats who were elected by promising Latino voters that they finally would fix this problem once they gained control of the White House and the Congress are warning us now about the "little window of opportunity" - setting us up for a major betrayal once the so-called window of opportunity is totally shut.

"El espacio es pequeno (The space is small)," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., as he framed a tiny window with his hands on a Spanish-language TV network interview recently. "We have to do it in February or early March of next year."

Gutierrez told Univision's Jorge Ramos that the new legislation, still being written, will be introduced in both the House and the Senate in late January or early February, that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will be his counterpart in leading the fight in the Senate, and that the bill is likely to be very liberal. He said that seeing as the legislation is likely to be somewhat diluted by amendments from opponents of immigration reform, he and other proponents of the reforms have come to the conclusion that offense is the best defense.

In order to secure a path to legalization for the noncriminal undocumented immigrants already living here, Gutierrez said his bill will start on the left so that through negotiations with its Republican opponents, it could end up somewhere in the middle.

It sounds like a good strategy. After seeing that efforts to cultivate some Republican support for health care reform proved to be almost totally fruitless, why should Democrats bother to include get-tough immigration measures designed to please Republicans?

But such a strategy calls for a long and drawn-out debate and certainly not for a time-constrained window of opportunity. If Congress takes too long debating immigration, as we know it will, and if Republicans try to prolong the fight into the midterm elections, as we know they will, then it will be time for the Democrats to show their true colors to the Latino voters who put them in office.

It may not be the year when we solve our immigration problems, but 2010 surely will be the year when Latino voters finally find out who their true amigos really are.

Amazingly, some Democrats already are suggesting that if Congress misses the so-called window early next year, true immigration reform may have to wait until Obama's second term as president.

And sadly, when Latino voters look at the increasingly anti-immigrant GOP as the only alternative, the Democrats can get away with betrayal and arrogance.

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