If you want to get people arguing these days, there’s no better topic than immigration. For talk show hosts who specialize in showcasing irate callers and displaying how angry they are themselves, devoting a show to immigration, especially illegal immigration, is a no-brainer.

The topic is so bitter, and Americans are so divided about it, that we seem to have decided to live with a broken system rather than compromise on crafting a new one.

In some ways, this is surprising. Everyone knows America is a nation of immigrants – it’s a cliché to say so. The United States has long been the destination for millions of people hoping that hard work and freedom will secure a better life for them and their children. Compared to many other countries, we’ve been comparatively willing to put out the welcome mat. And yet as a nation, we still haven’t made up our minds about immigration.

Here’s some food for thought that may help you think through your own views on the issue:

• The U.S. is now experiencing a great wave of immigration, second only to that at the turn of the 20th century. Yet this wave also comes at a time when many Americans are concerned about declining incomes, poorly-guarded borders and the threat of terrorism.
  
  
• There are actually two issues. The first is what kinds of policies we should have on legal immigration – how many people can we welcome and how we decide who should come. The second is what to do about illegal immigration – how to reduce and what to do about the nearly 12 million illegal or “undocumented” immigrants currently in the United States, about a third of whom have entered since 2000.
  
  
• There’s often talk of deporting illegal immigrants which is what the current says should happen, but realistically, deporting nearly 12 million people would be a massive undertaking – that’s more than the population of Ohio.
  
  
• Illegal immigration now amounts to about 3 percent of the total U.S. population. Over half of illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and most live in California and Texas.
  
  
• Much of the debate over legal immigration revolves around the economic impact and the degree to which new immigrants join the American mainstream. Does the U.S. economy benefit from the talents of immigrants, or do immigrants take jobs away from citizens? Should immigrants be required to learn English? What benefits should immigrants receive once they're here? These questions aren’t new. Similar issues were raised during the first great wave of immigration in the 19th century.
  
  
• Illegal immigration also raises economic issues – particularly whether it brings down wages for American workers by giving employers a steady stream of people who will accept very low wages and poor working conditions. It also raises questions about how secure the border is and whether terrorists and criminals might take advantage of the easy access.
  
  
• There are also issues of fairness and the rule of law. Many Americans are angry that U.S. laws have been widely disobeyed without much consequence for those who violated them – either illegal immigrants themselves and/or U.S. employers who hire them? How should we handle people who enter the country illegally? If they have obeyed the law and built honorable, constructive lives since then, what should we do then?
  
  
• Unfortunately, economists don’t agree on whether the U.S. benefits economically from immigration. In some ways, the answer depends on where you stand. From a national perspective, there are pluses to having a large, flexible work force and younger immigrants to offset an aging population. However, in some local areas, high levels of immigration have meant additional costs for public schools and health systems. Even here, the answers are not clear cut. In some areas like New York and California, legal and illegal immigrants perform so many jobs – and so many kinds of jobs -- that it is difficult to imagine how things would get done without them.
  
  

The Law of Diminishing Returns?

The government has tried repeatedly to “fix” the country’s immigration system:

• In 1986, President Reagan signed a law requiring employers to verify the immigration status of employees and granting amnesty to an estimated 1.7 million undocumented workers.
  
  
• A few years later Congress tripled the number of visas to 140,000 for certain categories of workers with needed skills.
  
  
• In the 1990s, Congress gave state and local law enforcement the authority to help federal agencies crack down on illegal immigration - a role that was ratcheted up following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
  
  
• In 2007, a bipartisan group including members of Congress and President Bush proposed legislation to create a guest worker program and provide most illegal immigrants with a path toward citizenship. The legislation failed to pass, but a law was passed to build barriers along the U.S./Mexican border, which would be policed by thousands of additional Border Patrol officers.
  
  

There’s a general consensus that the current immigration system is broken, but Washington has been gridlocked on immigration reform for years. Politicians tend to play to the extremes on this issue, because it’s the hard core believers on each side who are the most vocal.