There are currently approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and under the proposed immigration plan they will all need to screened before they can be naturalized if an immigration overhaul is put in place. After the Boston Marathon bombings, the federal government is particularly concerned with security and making sure that all immigrants are not safety threats. That is why they are determining that all immigrants in the United States may need to pass national-security and criminal background checks before they would be permitted to receive legal status.

While this may sound like an excellent idea to preserve the safety of Americans, some skeptics aren't certain that the government has the ability to screen all 11 million immigrants. Some of those in opposition say that the government doesn't have the time to screen all of these people thoroughly and that background checks may also be unfruitful in screening out potential terrorists because the checks are limited to information that is contained in government databases and terrorist-watch lists. Those who don't have a criminal record or have never been a person of suspicion probably will not become a safety alert and this may lead to complications.

A vice president at the Heritage Foundation says that if an immigrant is not already listed in a database or there is not something in their background that raises a red flag then the immigrant will not create any notifications. National security was not considered a serious issue in the immigration reforms until the Boston Marathon bombings which occurred on April 15^th, 2013. The young men who set off the bombs were naturalized citizens who originally entered the United States on visas and then remained in the country.

On Tuesday, the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano took the podium and claimed that an immigration overhaul would improve national security because authorities would be able to take note of who was in the country. Napolitano explained that it may have been easier to locate the two men that were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings if they had been better documented by the government. Napolitano says that if the immigrants are all screened and entered into databases, those that do commit crimes will be easier to locate than if they remain undocumented and therefore relatively unknown to the United States.

The current bill which is being reviewed may allow the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States to apply for a provisional legal status that will last for 10 years. After this time, they have the right to apply for permanent residency, and three years after obtaining this permission the immigrants would have permission to apply for citizenship. The bill requires that all immigrants who apply for a legal status register with the government. They will need to file applications that include personal information and will need to submit fingerprints and other biometric data.

The bill also requires that the all immigrants pass a new national-security and criminal-background check every single time that they apply to renew their provisional status or when they apply for permanent residency. This will ensure that immigrants maintain a consistency of character during their time in the United States. Those who have aggravated felonies on their records will not be permitted to adjust their status at all. The government is also looking into the Boston Marathon bombings to determine whether or not the suspects related to the bombing used any loopholes in the immigration system to determine whether or not the government needs to re-vamp the national-security checks and determine any flaws that need to be corrected in the system.

Currently, the government believes that the two individuals who are partially responsible for the Boston bombing would not have been detected as a threat with a deeper background check. The only thing that gave one of the individuals away was the fact that he was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and commonly read extremist propaganda.

As the government explores options for national-security checks, it will also need to determine how to complete this task in an efficient manner. With the right attorney on your side, you may be able to get through the background checks in a short amount of time. If you are a non-suspicious person, you may be able to work this to your advantage in any situation. Contact an attorney today if you want more information about the current immigration debates or need immediate defense because of an immigration complication.