The United States is a destination for many people seeking new lives in the way of wealth, freedom and opportunity for themselves and their children.

But a bill sitting at the House would make illegal immigration a felony, and with a growing illegal immigrant population, the issue has grown increasingly controversial and desperate for some.

Due to the huge influx of illegal immigrants, many groups are criticizing the administration and Congress for their inability to control the borders to regulate immigration.

Is the immigration policy too lax?

“The current immigration policy is fine, but border security is a joke,” said Dave Gorak, executive program director of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration. “There are laws on record that the government fails to enforce, and institutions in place like the border patrol that the government fails to equip properly.”

In addition to problems with the current immigration and naturalization systems, many groups fear the long-term problems associated with a massive flow of immigration.

“We shouldn’t stop immigration, but in order to help those who do immigrate, assimilate and survive, we need to have better regulation,” said Caroline Espinosa, press secretary for NumbersUSA. “Current laws and mechanisms in place are not satisfactory to regulate immigration.”

Mexico’s stance on immigration

The Mexican government has stated that immigrants are good for the United States, but some groups question whether that government has the interests of the United States at heart.

“The policy of the Mexican government toward immigration is hypocritical at best. They have armed guards on their southern borders, a laundry list of abuses against immigrants for other Central American countries and a practice of keeping out immigrants from Central America,” said John Keeley, director of communications at the Center of Immigration Studies. “Yet, they criticize the United States on its policy toward immigration. The Mexican government wants immigration to continue because they are expelling a disaffected populace, which prevents political change, and the Mexican economy receives anywhere from $20 to 25 billion annually from workers who send money back.”

Benefits of illegal immigration

Some say immigration has inherent benefits to the United States and Mexico that should be considered before any actions are considered.

“The benefits of immigration is more workers to produce output,” said Carl Campbell, associate professor and assistant chair of the NIU economics department. “This will raise the gross domestic product, because more items will be produced and people can buy more products cheaply.”

Reforming policy

Others say the government will require a whole new strategy if the government decides to solve the illegal immigration problem.

“The major problem the current U.S. immigration policy [has] is its lack of clarity. The policy is not very clear, and it’s not enforced. To begin the process of solving immigration, we will need to first solve our own policy deficiencies,” said Michael Gonzales, director of the NIU Latin American Studies. “Plus, border security is not the answer to decrease immigration. To solve this problem we need to fix the economic conditions in the countries that are experiencing massive emigration and make them better for the people.”

There is concern the immigration system as a whole needs some reworking.

“The immigration system is broken,” said Gabriella Lemus of League of Latin American Citizens.

Attaining citizenship

Since Reagan’s first immigration act passed, she said, the bureaucracy that has grown is nearly insurmountable for many immigrants. Among the hundreds of different applications, paperwork tends to get lost, and the average time for an immigrant to attain citizenship is five to seven years, she said. During that time they may be working and mowing the lawn as a normal-functioning citizen, but there is no guarantee.

Lemus just received word yesterday that one of the organization’s clients is getting deported, a case they took on in 1986. Instances such as these reflect the disorder of the bureaucracy, she said.