There is estimated to be 12million illegal immigrants currently in the US

In a few months time the US will be engulfed in the highly conscientious subject of US immigration reform. The controversial legislation is being prepared to be raised by Democrats in the House of Representatives, heavily backed by the Obama administration.

The subject has this month been brought back into the realm of debate by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In giving a speech about US immigration reform in Washington DC she said that the legalising of undocumented immigrants would bring about great benefits to the economy, this has been heavily criticised by the Republican Party.

The reason this subject raises such high feelings is clear, and possibly why it failed in 2007, it is dealing with people. These are people’s lives and where the US constitution lies in relation to dealing with those people.

In her speech this month Janet Napolitano emphasised the need to approach this issue firmly and fairly, this perhaps epitomises Democrats concerns that already this has brought about some stark reactions among certain parts of America, a large part of which do not want to see illegal immigrants granted citizenship. To not just simply waive off this part of the US as racist rednecks, it is important to understand why these people would be against the US immigration reform.

What has to be found in this argument is middle-ground. Opponents of the reform are law-abiding, tax paying citizens who see the legalising of immigrants who have entered and stayed here illegally as morally reprehensible, however they are also victims of xenophobia and prejudices against the portion of society the bill aims to help.

What is clear is that some sort of reform has to take place; the US immigration measures that have been in place to date have been draconian to say the least, things are not working as they are, with conservative estimates putting the amount of illegal immigrants in the US at 12million.

Certain areas in the legislation will need to be addressed, the current unemployment rate is a bone that the Republicans will enjoy chewing on, and a work-around will have to be found. The screening of people entering the US will also need to be comprehensively shown to be working in preventing criminals from entering the country. The issue of security at the Mexican border seems to have been dealt with, being made fairly robust since 2007, with border patrol being increased to 20,000 and the security measures beefed up considerably.

The debate will continue and very likely progress considerably from what we see in front of us. The core of the situation will however remain, US Homeland Security can no-longer enforce the law as it is, and they have said so much. This emotional issue is about finding a path to legality for millions of people, how this is achieved is not clear, though I feel it will make the US a much better place for them, the country and the children of the country.