What's 2011 going to be like for immigrants in the U.S.? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that they are in for a very rough year.

Come January, when Republican lawmakers take over the House and beef up their presence in the Senate, immigrants - documented or not - would do well to brace for even more unforgiving winds of intransigence, petty politicking and outright racism blowing from Washington.

This is not speculation. Republicans have been clear about their intentions to take the persecution of immigrants to new extremes.

Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), the next chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has made a priority of expanding a program that transforms local police into virtual immigration agents with the power - and the mission - of arresting suspected undocumented immigrants. He also believes workplace raids are a good idea.

"There is a lack of urgency by the administration," King said.

Even worse is that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), a vocal opponent of "birthright" citizenship, will take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, with oversight of deportations and arrests. This is a man who insists his problem is only with illegal immigration, yet favors limiting legal immigration. His top priority is workplace enforcement and expanding the employee identification program known as E-Verify.

According to America's Voice, Smith's logic is to get more undocumented fired so "they will pack up their homes, kids, and lives and move back to Mexico." But as the pro-immigration group says, "The problem is that they came here illegally because there weren't jobs in Mexico." In other words, instead of 11 million people voluntarily removing themselves from the land of opportunity, "a more likely scenario is that they will simply move into the underground economy, where employers are all too happy to pay them under the table." Nasty, but not very smart.

Smith's right-hand man likely will be Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), the next chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration. This is the guy who famously said he wants to build a border fence that no one could get across, not even "a cockroach." He plans to introduce a bill to modify the 14th Amendment in order to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented parents. No more "cockroaches," even if they were born in America.

Yet, in the end their repressive mentality and methods will work against them. Clearly, demographics favor Democrats in the not-too-long run. For one, Latinos, the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation, are not about to support the bullies who demonize and persecute their own.

The proof is in the pudding: In the midterm elections, 71% of the Latino vote went to Democratic candidates, according to the polling firm Latino Decisions. Add to this the growth of Hispanic populations in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Florida and other states, and what emerges is the picture of an old and shrinking Republican Party.

Even though doing what really needs to be done - legalizing the 11 million undocumented and getting rid of laws that make immigrants criminals and work a crime - is out of the question, the President has some tools at his disposal.

To begin with, he could stop deportations that divide families, humanize detention centers and grant parole to DREAM Act students. Those would be steps in the right direction and would help Obama regain the trust of Latino voters.

Then, and more important, it's a matter of more immigrants becoming citizens so they can vote and send the bullies packing as soon as possible.