In his State of the Union Address on January 20, President George W. Bush reiterated his wish for Congress to pass his immigration reform proposal:

Tonight I also ask you to reform our immigration laws, so they reflect our values and benefit our economy. I propose a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the job. This reform will be good for our economy - because employers will find needed workers in an honest and orderly system. A temporary worker program will help protect our homeland - allowing border patrol and law enforcement to focus on true threats to our national security. I oppose amnesty, because it would encourage further illegal immigration, and unfairly reward those who break our laws. My temporary worker program will preserve the citizenship path for those who respect the law, while bringing millions of hardworking men and women out from the shadows of American life.

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Special Agents for the Office of Investigation of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are using IRS records to identify immigrants who are deportable.  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is part of the Treasury Department, but was separated by the IRS in 1999.

In November 2003, IRS officers began using computer records to identify taxpayers who used ITIN’s instead of Social Security numbers on their W-2 forms and then filed their tax returns.  The IRS then contacts Immigration and Customs Enforcement to verify that the names discovered in the ITIN search are not resident aliens.  One these deportable immigrants are identified, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration then files a criminal complaint charging these immigrants with possessing fake resident alien cards.  Then USCIS is notified, and deportation proceedings are initiated.

To date, the IRS has compiled a list of 250,000 persons the IRS suspects are illegal immigrants.  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has advised that for national security reasons, the agency plans to prosecute as many of these illegal immigrants as possible.

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Since President Bush proposed his guest worker program on January 7, 2004, immigrants-rights groups have been receiving calls from individuals who mistakenly believe that the President’s plan has been approved and passed by Congress.   Some of these immigrants have been deceived by legal-sounding businesses into paying for the “new” work permits.  Immigration experts are now warning immigrants to be wary of such businesses claiming they can begin the legalization process based on the President’s proposal. 

An “immigration service center” in Santa Ana, California named La Guadalupana has allegedly defrauded thousands of Mexican nationals.  Immigration experts have said that this kind of fraud is becoming more common.

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Although the Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has publicly said that the Bush administrations plan to grant temporary legal status to millions of undocumented workers would make it harder for terrorists to infiltrate the US-Mexico border, both supporters and opponents agree that that any temporary-worker program could add millions of new applications to the nation’s already overburdened immigration system.

Ridge has said that if the program is adopted, undocumented workers would no longer need to hire the same document forgers and smugglers that terrorists use to enter the US.  However, it could cost billions of dollars to administer and require hiring and training thousands of new immigration workers to process the applications, possibly taking years to implement.

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American business and travel industry groups have growing concerns about the decrease in international visitors following the newest security measure, US-VISIT.  US-VISIT requires those traveling on a visa to have two digital fingerprint scans and a digital photograph taken on arrival. 

The number of arrivals in the US has fallen from a record 51 million in 2000 to an estimated 40 million last year.  The industry claims that the sharp decline cost the American economy $15 billion.  The Tourism Industry Association of America, which is heading a campaign to delay new passport requirements, predicts arrivals will increase by five percent this year, adding $69 billion to the US economy. 

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A new civics test for prospective citizens is being developed for use by next year.  The agency is also experimenting with alterations to the English-language test that prospective citizens must also pass.

Immigrant advocates are concerned that the new test could serve as a bar to citizenship.  According to the USCIS, the goal of the department is to make the test more meaningful, moving toward a more standardized test as opposed to the present oral examination.   The present test can allow different individuals to receive different questions, with differing degrees of complexity.

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Judge Roger B. Colton is being criticized for reporting illegal immigrant children that appeared in his courtroom.  The reports have occurred at least four times since October.  Colton writes down names, addresses, and birth dates of immigrant children and their families, and then faxes the information to the US Border Patrol. 

Colton claims to be doing his duty, but immigration advocates are concerned that his actions will prevent immigrants from coming forward as witnesses.