About 11.8 million illegal immigrants are estimated to live in the United States, an increase from the 8.5 million estimated in 2000, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have said the country's immigration system needs to be improved.
Christine Sierra, a political science professor at UNM, said the current immigrant-admissions system is causing problems with illegal entry.
Creating more opportunities for legal entry would solve much of the immigration problem, she said.
"I suspect that Congress will revive ... (the question of) what to do with the undocumented people here, and I suspect - whether it's McCain or Obama - I would guess that they are going to both look very seriously at trying to find a path to legalization for at least some of those undocumented immigrants," she said. "The second part of that is if we could create a better way of processing immigrants."
If elected, McCain has said he will implement a two-step process to reform the immigration system.
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"This is a national security issue. We have to secure our borders. We have to address it in as humane and compassionate an issue as possible," McCain said in a primary debate in January. "We have to respect our nation's security requirements. It's time Republican and Democrat sat down together and resolved this issue. Because if you've got broken borders, and if you have 12 million people here illegally, then, obviously, you have de facto amnesty. It is a federal responsibility."
His first step is to bolster security along the borders through physical and virtual barriers, and McCain said he will guarantee funding for these barriers and for staff-training facilities. After the borders are secure, he plans to create a system to prosecute employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Obama also plans to secure the borders by adding personnel, infrastructure and technology, and he said wants to remove incentives for illegal entrance to the country by punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Sierra said the government places more emphasis on border enforcement and focuses less on providing services to help immigrants get their visas legally.
"The backlog can extend for years, and some might have petitions to come into the United States under some kind of a visa, but it might take 10, 15, 20 years for that visa to get processed," she said.
McCain said he would clear out the backlog of immigrants waiting to receive a green card, while Obama has said the United States needs to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease immigration altogether.
"For all the noise and anger that too often surrounds the immigration debate, America has nothing to fear from today's immigrants," Obama said in an address to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in June. "They have come here for the same reason that families have always come here - for the hope that in America, they could build a better life for themselves and their families."
Sierra said some immigrants cross the border secretly in order to support their families.
"In the case of Mexicans, we know that a number of people do want to come in legally, and they might go through the paperwork to do it, but in the meantime, because of their desperate need for making a living or getting a job and sending money back home, they'll come across the border illegally and just hope that they don't get caught," she said.
According to the report Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States, 7 million of the 11.8 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. are from Mexico.
Immigrants who stay in the country past their allotted time also factor into this problem, Sierra said.
"They might come on a tourist visa; they might come on a business visa; or they might come on a student visa, and when their time is up to return to their home countries, they do not," Sierra said.
These immigrants weigh out their prospects for providing for their family back home and being able to get back into the country once they leave.
"It's all about risk, and they calculate in their minds, 'What do I want to do for the benefit of myself and my family?'" Sierra said.
McCain
Deport the 2 million illegal immigrants convicted of crimes
Help all immigrants learn English
Secure the border; allow only guest workers
Obama
Support the DREAM Act, allowing children of immigrants to go to college
Encourage students to learn a second language
Illegal immigrants shouldn't work but should have path to citizenship
