Thursday evening, Bill Pascrell, the former mayor of Paterson and the congressman from New Jersey’s 9th congressional district, held a large gathering inside the auditorium of International High School on Grand Street, to inform his constituents of immigration laws.

He stressed the importance of immigration reform to national security, saying, a nation cannot be protected if the federal government does not know who is inside the country. Mr Pascrell also criticized his colleagues saying most of them have little idea what the current immigration laws are yet they are attempting to reform them.

Mr Pascrell also informed the audience that immigration issue is not a Latino issue because illegal immigrants come not just from South America but from other continents and countries as well. Some of them come on visiting visas from as far away places as Kazakhstan and stay inside the country after the visas expire. However, much of the attention is on Mexico and South America — a bulk of immigrants come to America from that region, mostly without papers. A new immigration bill in Congress attempts to build lengthy fence across America’s southern border with Mexico.

The congressman admitted that the current law is broken, and as a result it is not working for anybody.

Although the immigration issue seems important there has been news that “the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped and may have reversed,” according to Pew Research, a nonpartisan think tank. Some say that trend occurred due to the weak American economy. Illegal immigration from Mexico is set to resume once the economy recovers. “It is possible that the Mexican immigration wave will resume as the U.S. economy recovers,” according to the think tank.

Maybe it is smart to fix the immigration problem prior to a full recovery.