In the State of the Union address last night, President Obama reiterated his call for the overhaul of immigration laws and continued to insist that the government needs to do something about this issue. The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking action right away, and it set to hold their first hearing on this topic today. A bi-partisan group of senator’s has already come up with a comprehensive immigration reform plan which will put the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States on the path to citizenship. At the same, the new plan advocates for righter border controls and closer monitoring of visitors in the United States. According to the New York Times, the hearing today in the Senate will be closely watched by Americans as they review the plan that has been created by the eight senators on the bipartisan committee.

According to the Judiciary Committee’s chairmen, Senator Patrick L. Leahy, there between 11 million and 12 million people in America that are undocumented and the government needs to handle that reality. The senator group released the broad sketch of their immigration proposal last month, but they have not yet fleshed it out for other politicians who are involved in the immigration reform efforts. In President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, he once again advocated for the need to reform the immigration and said that overhauling the immigration system will strengthen the economy. As well, he claims that America needs to harness the talents and the ingenuity of immigrants and allow them the flourish in the United States in order to boost the nation into a new economic realm.

In his State of the Union address, the president reiterated the fact that he wants to create a responsible pathway to earn citizenship for illegal immigrants. He did not specify how many of the immigrants within the country are eligible for legal status, so it is not yet known whether entire families or merely a select few have the right to stay and live in the United States. According to the reports, President Obama announced that those who will get a legal status in the United States will still need to pass a background check, pay back taxes and a fine for their failure to contribute before, and learn English. These requirements will help to weed through the immigrants that are willing to work hard for a new status ad those that are not. President Obama also announced that those who have entered the United States illegally will need to wait behind all those who have been trying to gain legal status for a while and never broke the law by sneaking into the United States.

President Obama also commented that America needs stronger border security. Other politicians claim that until border security issues are solved there is no way that the United States can legalize immigrants. This is because more men and women who want to become citizens of the United States will flock to the country if they hear that there is a time-sensitive pathway to citizenship that they can take advantage of if they enter the nation in time. The new immigration policies that are being developed in the Senate also deal with same-sex immigrant couples, which is a rarity that has not been introduced before in immigration bills. Mr. Obama said that he would include this provision. Currently, Senator Leahy is working hard to reintroduce the Uniting American Families Act in the Senate regarding immigrants. This act would give homosexual immigrant couples the same rights as heterosexual couples in regards to the law. If you need more information about these reforms or are currently dealing with the border patrol and need legal assistance you need to get ahold of a local immigration law firm.