Immigration Reform in The United Kingdom
As of 2010, in the United Kingdom, there is some cross-party support for immigration reform, largely under the auspices of the Strangers into Citizens campaign. Although the Liberal Democrats are the only major party to fully support reform, some Labour MPs (including former leadership candidate John McDonald), the IPPR (a Labour-leaning think-tank) and Boris Johnson (the Conservative Mayor of London) also support a selective amnesty for illegal immigrants. Under the Liberal Democrat proposal, this would involve regularisation for illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for at least ten years and who do not have a criminal record.
It is argued that bringing many of these (estimates varying widely from 300,000 to 800,000) individuals into the legal economy would allow police to concentrate resources on tackling people traffickers and criminals - and would raise billions in tax revenue - whereas deporting them would cost £4.7 billion and take 30 years. This issue is still a matter of political debate today in the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: Immigration Reform
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