Congressional Digest

Excerpt

Federal laws prohibit unauthorized aliens from living or working in the United States, yet provide limited avenues for some to obtain legal permanent residence status. It is unknown at any given time, however, exactly how many unauthorized aliens there are in the United States, where they came from, where they live, or what their demographic characteristics are. The most recent Department of Homeland Security estimates put this population at about 11.9 million.
Although there is a broad consensus that the Nation needs to overhaul its immigration policies — with the ultimate goal of reducing the nu…