Pro Illegal Immigrants laws drawing ire of Natives

As the US elections draw near, US politicians get divided on issue of immigrants, depending upon their vote bank. Going by popular sentiment of natives against illegal immigration, several politicians assure several immigration-related measures that seek to deliver justice to its natives.

A US citizen has a strong feeling that current immigration laws are unjust. They feel that the Government must extend certain benefits to undocumented workers and their children as the US society at large reaps the rewards of immigrant labor.

On the contrary, equally large section of people feels otherwise. They opine that enacting legislation that helps undocumented people is not fair to U.S. citizens who are not eligible for the same allowances. After all if you are law abiding citizen, you have no right to enter the country without proper documentation and yet these illegal people manage to get an advantage in some situations.

The debate could be endless as there is merit in both the arguments. Therefore, in order to move forward, we need to first acknowledge that when it comes to immigration, individuals from various camps bring legitimate thoughts, feelings and ideas to the debate. Recently, the debate has shifted to focus on people who illegally cross the border in order to work and provide a better life for their families.

All said and done, as the concerns of terrorism, job losses, lawlessness are rising, issue of illegal immigration cannot be ignored and pressure is building up on lawmakers to improve the efficiency of legal pathways. Large majority feels that instead of working on punitive measures on illegal immigrants, the state should work on developing legislation that strengthens the legal process and rewards people who follow the rules.

The current system, in many cases, does just the opposite. It makes tremendously difficult for individuals who have managed to enter through legal pathways to attain permanent residence and ultimately citizenship. The "amnesty" measures of the past have done little to help legal immigrants who want to make the U.S. their home, but they have given legal status to the undocumented.

This debate has clearly given rise to two sets of people; One who obey the law (citizens) and others who don't.

Majority in US today feels, and this includes second generation immigrants settled here too, that illegal Aliens and Immigration is NOT the same thing. Immigrant is a legal status granted by a sovereign country.
Surely as the concerns of terrorism, job cuts, recession are rising, the debate would continue till a meaningful solution emerges.