With an estimated 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States today, immigration reform has been a volatile issue that has not been adequately addressed throughout the 21st century. With the last major overhaul occurring in 1986, when more than 3 million immigrants were granted U.S. citizenship, politicians say another major overhaul is needed to tackle the new generation of illegal immigrants. Legislation, including the Border Protection, Counterterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, and the DREAM Act of 2012, have all attempted to address the depressing need for immigration reform, but failed due to lack of bipartisan support. Yet political leaders are pushing for immigration reform that is unlikely to pass with such divided political parties. Fortunately, the solution was already adopted in 1986 but has not been sufficiently applied over the last twenty years. To stop the flow of illegal immigrants crossing America's borders, the United States should enforce the law prohibiting the hiring of illegal immigrants. Currently, about 52 percent, or about 6 million, of illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. With the peak number of illegal immigrants reaching 12.2 million in 2007, the Pew Research Center projects that the number will rise again after sharp declines in 2008 and 2009. Although the true cause of this decline is unknown, Jefferey S Passel, a senior demographer for Pew's Hispanic Trends Project, noted: “The dates of decline correspond to the deepest years of the economic downturn, with its high unemployment. We don’t know what caused this decline, but it certainly coincides with the recession.” As the recession slows to a halt, illegal immigration is expected to increase despite a rec...... middle of paper ......rrent. In total, the Obama administration collected only $31.2 million in fines between 2009 and 2012, far better than the pathetic $1.5 million collected by the Bush administration between 2003 and 2008. Yet, the Obama administration was supposed to put more emphasis on going after employers. Part of this is because Immigration and Customs Enforcement does a terrible job enforcing sanctions on businesses. For example, “many offices have issued far more warnings and far fewer fines than other offices and some don't take it seriously and just pretend. Their goal is to accumulate enough audits so that the administration can use the numbers to assert that it is rigorously enforcing the law.” As Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, says: "Mr. Obama talked a good game but didn't follow through.”