The recent and widely reported arrest of workers at the Lowe's construction site in Essex Junction, Vermont who apparently are illegal aliens sparked strong debate among some Vermont conservatives who generally may agree on policy matters but find themselves on opposite sides of the immigration debate. As an immigration lawyer, this does not surprise me. Immigration policy crosses party lines and socio-economic lines. The sense among immigration practitioners is that the Obama administration may be less likely to focus on immigration reform than a McCain administration would have been, I believe largely because the business/employer sector is the hardest hit U.S. constituency suffering from the current immigration mess. As a lawyer for the business/employer sector, I deal with the immigration regulations every day, trying to help businesses and institutions hire the people they want or need to hire despite barriers imposed by U.S. immigration law. There is a misconception that U.S. immigration law is lenient, and that is not the case. But it is impossible for the U.S. government to enforce immigration laws against U.S. employers in an economy that requires a more labor and professionals than our own society produces and thus creates a great deal of pressure to violate the immigration laws. The only efficient enforcement measure in place is the "honor system" which most employers follow carefully but which many employers either don't understand or don't honor. In the last few years the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) has focused its enforcement efforts on criminal prosecutions of business managers and owners who hire illegal workers - because the U.S. government sees the demand (by U.S. employers, for cheap labor) as the driving force for illegal immigration, not the supply (of illegal workers, seeking gainful employment). The web site of DHS/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)features reports of ICE's enforcement efforts against employers in 2007, including ICE's report entitled "FY07 Accomplishments" stating that "ICE's more aggressive worksite enforcement strategy targeted the 'jobs magnet' that attracts illegal aliens seeking employment in the U.S." The fact that enforcement against employers has been a hallmark of the Bush administration, but was not a priority under the Clinton Administration and is not expected to be a priority of the Obama administration, is just one indication as to how immigration policy crosses party lines. The fact that the political parties are split on how to address immigration is one of the main reasons why immigration reform efforts fail year after year in Washington, D.C., leaving us with the status quo - despite the fact that the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the status quo is unacceptable.