The voices of the angry and concerned

immigration demonstrators who have marched across

American cities in search of changes yell out: “Legalization

now! We are not criminals, let us be heard.”

The government commenced a new, more

aggressive stance on illegal immigration. Agents have

raided homes and businesses to round up illegal immigrants.

Last month federal agents raided businesses

in 7 cities around the country, arrested almost 200 undocumented

workers and rounded up over 2300 illegal

immigrants who had been previously ordered to leave

the country, but had not.

The Center of Immigration Studies estimates

that half a million illegal immigrants enter the United

States everyday.

To help reduce the flow of illegal immigration

across the Mexican border, the United States Congress

approved building a 370 mile of fence across the border.

“There has been a tenfold increase or more in

the number of absconders [fugitive aliens] that we’ve

rounded up and sent back. We’ve gone from one or

two criminal cases five or six years ago to about 800

criminal cases this past year, because we are really

pulling out all the stops,” Homeland Security Secretary

Chertoff told ABC News.

Many immigrants are concerned

about the latest crackdowns.

“I believe immigrants should be legalized,

because they are human beings who have come here in

search of a new life. I also believe that immigrants that

should be legalized are those who work hard and have

no criminal backgrounds,” said Amarilys Dominguez,

a south Florida resident.

During the time of protest, pressure on politicians

to change immigration laws overwhelmed the

nation’s capitol. The United States Congress began to

take drastic immigration changes. They began addressing

the problem by introducing bills in both House and

Senate. Bill 1348 was introduced in the Senate. This

bill asked for a Comprehensive Immigration reform for

2007.

“This bill was to increase border and work

site security, create temporary guest workers programs

and employment verifications system, and produce a

merit system for the future immigration efforts, but

failed to come up for a vote,” said Florida Congresswoman

Ilena Ros Lethinen.

The House of Representatives and the US

Senate could not come to an agreement and the bill

died.

Currently, in the House of Representative

there is an immigration bill, which Florida congresswoman

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is co-sponsoring. The

bill is known as House Bill1645. This bill asks for

security through regularized immigration and a vibrant

economy act strives.

“It requires detailed evaluation of information

sharing, international and federal-state-local

coordination, technology, anti smuggling efforts, and

other border security initiatives,” said Congresswoman

Ros-Lehtinen. But things do not end here; another bill

introduced in the house is the Dream Act, which Congresswoman

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is co-sponsoring.

“The bill allows students to adjust to their

status of legal permanent residency on a conditional

basis upon requirement,” said Florida Congresswoman

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

“For the majority of immigrants, becoming

a United States citizen is the culmination of many

years of hard work, and represents the realization of

a dream shared by all immigrants who have added so

much to our nation while in search of a better life for

themselves and their families,” said Congresswoman

Ros-Lehtinen.

The future of the immigrants living in the

United States is still uncertain. Senator Bill Nelson

said, for now the Senate has decided not to pass any

immigration reform bills.