With an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States, fears of terrorists crossing the borders and increasing labor needs in certain sectors, Congress is taking steps to address a system that has long been considered broken.

A symposium at UNLV last week addressed the most pressing issues of immigration reform and what measures must be considered if the United States is to enact workable immigration policies and laws.

The event was hosted by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which brought in law professors, politicians' staff members and immigration lawyers to explain why the current system does not work and what changes they think would - and would not - best address the problem.

The main issues being debated on the local and national stage are what to do with illegal immigrants already here, what to do about border security, how to enforce the laws and how to deal with social services.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are trying to resolve these questions through comprehensive immigration legislation. The House has already passed the STRIVE Act and the Senate is reconsidering a proposal that passed there last year, with a few amendments.

After decades of on-again, off-again debate, most agree that something must be done, and soon.

Of course, not everyone agrees on what those moves should be. Several states and municipalities have enacted what immigrant rights activists call "backlash" legislation meant to punish illegal immigrants - mostly the Hispanic ones. The laws are meant to push Hispanic immigrants back to their home countries, discourage them from overstaying their visas or from crossing the border in the first place.

This tactic includes English-only laws, rent restrictions, and denial of public services like education and health care to undocumented immigrants and their children.

These laws, which are shaped by stereotypes, will not solve the problem, said Sylvia Lazos , a law professor at the Boyd School of Law. She said the most common stereotypes are that illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans and don't pay taxes, that they are only here for free social services like health care, that they don't want to be citizens and send all of their money to their home countries, that they hate Americans and are determined to destroy the country, and that they are law breakers.

She said that while some illegal immigrants do fall into some of these categories, most just want to work, raise families and give their children a better life. And while the backlash has mostly been directed against Hispanics and Latinos, there are illegal immigrants from every continent.

Some argue that we would not have a problem with illegal immigration if American immigration policies reflected the reality of the nation's workforce challenges. While American businesses - most notably the hospitality, agriculture and service industries - need about 500,000 visas for low-skill workers, only 10,000 such visas are granted each year. And those visas are spread among several countries.

Likewise, there are only about 65,000 visas for high-skilled workers. But with the low numbers of Americans going into math- and science-related careers, several times that many are needed.

Filling the gaps are low-skill workers who cross the border illegally and educated immigrants who overstay their work or education visas. If all of those people are repatriated and the caps on work visas are not lifted, there could be dire effects on the economy, the panelists agreed. The effects of this are already being seen.

"As a resident here, what scares the hell out of me is we're embracing laws that discourage hiring of qualified workers, and companies are going to have to continue moving offshore to get workforce needs fulfilled," Ashman said. "They can't get the workforce to do the jobs they need to get done. The result is businesses in the U.S. are failing, they're not reaching their potential and are being forced offshore. It seems counterproductive that our representatives in Washington can't understand the needs of businesses to access the labor force."

This could hold especially true in places like Nevada, where cities are trying to lure light industrial and technology manufacturers but lack the workforce to support them.

Some legislators have proposed a controversial solution to this problem. Instead of increasing the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year, the U.S. would instead give priority to certain workers over family members when considering applications.

Historically, the U.S. has welcomed family members of citizens and given them priority, under the theory that having family in the U.S. strengthens immigrants' involvement in the communities and speeds assimilation. But even that has been difficult in recent years.

"There is already an immigration backlog," said Leticia Salcedo, co-director of the legal clinic at the Boyd School of Law . "The policies say the U.S. supports family reunification, but the laws don't support that. The quotas don't take into account that neighbor states like Mexico and Canada are more likely to have higher numbers of family members across the borders. There are people waiting 10 years to get in and reunify with their parents or siblings."

Also under debate is what should happen to undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. The popular solution in Congress is to put them on a path to legal residency or citizenship that starts with criminal background checks, repatriation to the home country, application for a special visa and paying large fines.

By providing a path to legalization for long-term undocumented residents, economic problems associated with illegal immigration such as low wages, stress on social services and unpaid taxes could be addressed without a major impact on the workforce.

"A lot of these people already pay taxes, sales tax and in some cases state and federal income taxes, but a lot of people are getting paid under the table and not paying those taxes," Ashman said. "If we provide a way to work legally, everyone will be paying taxes and there will be higher overall wages. That's going to float the entire economy."

Some people have criticized this plan because it requires families with mixed residency status to be split up and it depends on the governments of home countries to efficiently process the new applications. Applying for work visas in many developing nations typically require bribes and favors to immigration officials in those countries. And the fines have been criticized as prohibitively high.

Without addressing economic conditions in the countries that export the most undocumented workers (Mexico and other Latin American countries) the flow of immigrants will not be easily stopped. While legislation currently under consideration in Congress would go a long way toward fixing the immigration problem, it does not address it at its roots. There needs to be jobs, schools and the possibility of prosperity for them in their home countries if we are to lighten the demand for immigration to the U.S., Ashman said.

The world, then, will be watching the U.S. Congress over the coming weeks as it attempts to hammer out a comprehensive immigration reform bill everyone can live with. One that deals with the complexities of the American workforce, generations of migration between countries, securing the borders against terrorists and assimilating immigrants into American culture.

No easy task, but one that must be tackled.