The proposition, which is largely the first of its kind in the country, is likely to receive mixed criticism from the federal government, according to The Associated Press. Supporters of the bill believe it creates an ingenious solution to current labor shortages in the state, especially in the agriculture industry. However, no hard data has been collected on how many of Kansas's jobs would go unfilled without immigrant workers, and without this statistical knowledge, it will likely be difficult for supporters to firmly prove their case.

According to the AP, the business coalition currently heading the proposal worked out the details of their idea just days after Dale Rodman, Kansas's agriculture secretary, talked about getting a waiver from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to hire more illegal immigrants in the state's agriculturally centered businesses.

The closest to the Kansas proposition would be Utah's guest-worker program, set to begin in 2013. Open to workers in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, the pilot program will enable Utah employers to hire Mexican citizens, who will be given U.S. visas to participate in the program. The program will not lead to citizenship, however.

While many undocumented residents are happy to have the promise of a livelihood offered by the bill, several government officials from Kansas and other states have been angered by the measure.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who assisted in drafting the stringent immigration laws currently in Alabama and Arizona, is against the measure, saying it gives amnesty to those who have come here illegally. 

Originally hailing from Villa Maria, Argentina, Rosales has been with the Seattle Sounders since march 2011. According to the MLS Network, Rosales previously played for two Argentinian soccer clubs and played three years for Holland's Ajax.

While sports have always been an arena that seeks out international talent, Major League Soccer limits the number of foreign players each team can have on its roster. However, with Rosales now holding a green card, the Sounders can afford to take on more international talent. Current Sounders player Alvaro Fernandez is a likely bet for the team's next green card.

For the 2012 season, the MLS Roster Rules and Regulations declares that a total of 152 international slots must be divided between the 19 clubs currently part of the league. The remaining team members must be domestic players, which is defined as those with U.S. citizenship, a permanent green card or a player in the country on special status, such as refugee status.

While teams can trade for the rights to more international slots for their roster, current Sounders coach Sigi Schmid does not believe that is right. A number of non-roster invitees are currently included on the Sounders, and would count as international players if officially asked to join the team.

International athletes have not all been as lucky as Morales, however. According to the San Bernardino Sun, AA hockey player Chad Starling was turned back at the Canadian border for holding a B-1 visa instead of a P-1 visa, which is needed in the United States for athletes who have already been signed by a team. Although Starling was eventually processed for the appropriate visa, injuries caused the player to be cut from his California hockey team, leading Starling to an untimely retirement from the sport. 

According to ABC News, Reyes Jimenez had all four of her children taken from her in 2008, when she was arrested in front of them literally months after giving birth to her youngest child, who was 3 months old at the time. Authorities raided Reyes Jimenez's apartment and took her into custody on account of child endangerment, as her 13-year-old son, Cesar, was left in the family's apartment alone. Reyes Jimenez believed that her son was with her two eldest daughters and their father, but the other family members had left Cesar alone when they went to a nearby park. Reyes Jimenez arrived home to find police already at her home. Because she did not have the correct immigration forms, she was immediately handcuffed and taken away.

Moved to a deportation center, Reyes Jimenez fought for more than two years to win her four children back from the Phoenix-area Eloy Detention Center. Now living in her home country of Mexico, a Phoenix judge has terminated Reyes Jimenez's parental rights, and she is unsure as to whether she will ever see her children again. According to the source, her three daughters are being adopted by one family, and Cesar is being adopted by another. All four of her children have U.S. citizenship.

Reyes Jimenez is far from being alone in her separation from her children. According to a recent report from the Applied Research Center, more than 5,000 children are in the United States foster care system as a result of their parents' deportation. In total, more than 46,000 of the undocumented United States residents who have been deported have children with citizenship in the United States. 

The study, "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the New Alabama Immigration Law," by University of Alabama professor Samuel Addy found that while the state brought the law on for reasons of increased job prospects for those with U.S. citizenship and for supposed savings that would occur from government funds not being used to support the lives of illegal immigrants, Alabama government officials will likely not find as many benefits from the new law as they originally hoped it would bring.

The law, called HB 56, has been touted as the toughest immigration enforcement law in the entire country. The law requires people in Alabama to carry legal paperwork with them at all times, and has left many "mixed families," or those with children who are legal citizens but parents who are undocumented residents, often harboring a deep fear of separation.

In a recent Huffington Post interview, Alabama elementary school principal Bill Lawrence stated that some of his students are scared that their parents will not be home when they get back from school.

“Most of these kids are American citizens. American citizens attending American schools, afraid. A child in fear can’t learn," Lawrence said.

Far from saving the state any money, the laws may cost more than $10.8 billion to institute. Addy estimated that up to 80,000 jobs could be vacated through the strict new laws, which would likely mean a loss of $264.5 million in state sales and income taxes, as well as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes. In his lowest estimate, Addy believes that the laws will cost the state at least $2.3 billion. 

Ng's wife recently tried to sue Immigration and Customs Operations Coordinator Lawrence Smith for medical neglect related to her husband's condition, The Associated Press reported. Ng, a computer engineer based in New York City, died approximately one week after meeting with Smith.

Ng's death is hardly an isolated occurrence in the U.S. detainer system.

Guinea citizen Boubacar Bah, a tailor who had overstayed his U.S. tourist visa, died in 2007 from injuries sustained while in a detention facility, according to The New York Times. After having an accidental fall that led to head trauma, Bah was placed in solitary confinement by guards. Finally taken to the hospital, Bah died after four months of being in a coma from multiple brain hemorrhages and a skull fracture. Bah's family only found out about his condition after a desperate search, as no guards or immigration officials notified them.

After being compelled by Congress to compile a list of those who had died in detainer facilities, ICE revealed 66 people perished while in custody between 2004 and 2007, the Times reported.

While ICE is now required to contact next of kin within 24 hours of the death and report the news in a language that the deceased's kin can understand, activists say immigration services related to medical aid for those in detention need to be addressed.

On January 31, the Florida Senate's higher education committee decided not to pass a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Rene Garcia. Current law states that even those born in the United States who have undocumented parents do not qualify for in-state tuition at Florida's higher education institutions.

Senator Garcia filed the bill as a way to revamp a current injustice in the state, which punishes those with United States citizenship for their parents' status. 

"Right now an American-born citizen cannot qualify for in-state tuition even if he or she meets the residency requirements of the state because of the residency status of their parents," said Garcia during a January 31 committee meeting.

Opponents of the bill stated that Garcia's legislation would prompt more illegal immigrants to come to Florida. 

"They didn't ask to be born here. But on the same token, the other part that bothers me is, why would we give favor to children of illegal aliens over children of legal out-of-state, longtime American citizens? That just wasn't right," said Florida Senator Steve Oelrich at the meeting.

While Florida's tuition laws are some of the most stringent in the country, several states have in-state tuition policies that allow undocumented students to pay in-state rates if they meet certain criteria, according to the College Board.

In California, for example, students must have attended a state high school for at least three consecutive years before graduating, and upon entering a college or university, must sign an affidavit promising to file immigration forms to gain legal status. Other states that have limited in-state tuition options for undocumented students include Illinois, New York, Utah and Washington. 

Napolitano cited statistics showing Border Patrol apprehensions are down 53 percent since Obama took office, attributing this to an increase in the number of immigration enforcement agents and the deployment of more technology along U.S. borders, such as license plate readers and aerial surveillance. At the same time that illegal border crossings have fallen significantly, strategic deportations are up.

"This year, we began reviewing the hundreds of thousands of cases languishing on the immigration court docket to speed the removal of criminal aliens while administratively closing cases of those with no criminal record who pose no risk – such as students who were brought here through no fault of their own, or members of the military," Napolitano said.

The DHS secretary also touted reforms to the U.S.A. visa application process, which she said have made it easier for entrepreneurs to do business in the United States.

Despite her agency's accomplishments related to immigration, Napolitano said "current immigration laws are outdated and in need of revision."

Asked after her speech to name the single aspect of immigration reform she deems most crucial, Napolitano brought up the Dream Act. She said Congress should have passed the law that would have allowed illegal immigrants brought the country as children a path to U.S. citizenship.

In her speech, Napolitano returned to several topics she addressed in October at American University. There, she described her own upbringing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and said that her familiarity with the border gave her the authority to say that current security measures are innovative and successful. She asserted that the situation on the border should not stand in the way of immigration reform legislation.

According to an article in area news source the Contra Costa Times, Navarro had a willing donor – his wife – already lined up, and was able to pay for the operation with private insurance that he currently holds, and has held for 14 years. 

Officials at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center are unwilling to authorize the transplant procedure because Navarro's status could limit the adequate follow-up care needed for this operation, the source reported. Reece Fawley, the hospital's executive director, stated that UCSF looks at a number of socioeconomic factors when determining who will receive the hospital's services, with the financial clearance requiring stable insurance or financial means, while an individual's immigration status is also considered.

Navarro's health trouble began eight years ago, when his kidneys began to shut down and he began at-home dialysis treatments, according to the Times. With the average life expectancy of dialysis patients around six years, hope for Navarro continues to dim, as the full-time steel worker's illness has worsened.

A similar case occurred last December, when a New York man was denied a kidney transplant even after he found a perfect match from his brother, according to The New York Times. In an ironic twist of the United States' current immigration services in the realm of healthcare, while the government would continue to pay for lifetime dialysis for the illegal immigrant patient, which costs $75,000 annually, the government was unwilling to support the one-time cost of $100,000 for the transplant. 

Known to detain illegal immigrants residing in the city without bringing specific charges, the officers also allegedly use unwarranted violence, often kicking or slapping those in custody, according to a Justice Department report. Concerned citizens who attempted to stop the Miller's Boys' behavior were often followed, and the gang reportedly went through local stores' security footage that could be used as evidence against them.

Four members of the police force gang were arrested on January 24 by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The police harassment that occurred in East Haven was likely shocking for the nearby city of New Haven, as it has one of the largest immigration populations of any American city, and is considered one of the most welcoming. Recently, New Haven debuted a number of innovative immigration services, such as resident cards for all documented and undocumented residents.

Some residents are remarking that the East Haven situation illustrates how very little the country has evolved in regard to immigration. New Haven resident and Yale professor Matthew Jacobson said the United States is "a nation of gatekeepers" in a recent interview with area newspaper the New Haven Register. Nothing new to the country as a whole, Jacobson believes that the police officers' actions follow similar patterns of fear and discrimination towards new residents. 

Jacobson, an immigration expert, believes that current discriminatory attitudes can be broken into two basic responses. U.S. citizens seem to either be angry over the fact that immigrants are taking United States jobs, or angry that immigrants do not understand the democratic system of this country, and are not well-versed enough to practice self-government, according to the New Haven Register.

In September, Robert Spears took over the position of county clerk in Peoria, Illinois, and he's been hard at work ever since, the Journal Star reported. The office has processed 239 U.S. passport applications since September and 87 since the beginning of 2012. The youngest person to be granted a passport was a six-day-old baby boy whose parents were visiting the United States from England.

Spears told the newspaper that due to complications, the boy's mother was not able to return to the United Kingdom to give birth, making U.S. citizenship her son's first-ever birthday present. And like other U.S. citizens, the newborn needed a passport to fly across the pond.

The baby did not open his eyes for his passport photo, as is required, but Spears assured the Journal Star that the infant was given his passport regardless.

Going beyond the call of duty, Spears is opening his office on Saturday, February 4, to make it easier for college students to apply for passports prior to spring break, the source reported.

"We're trying to make it more convenient for people to get their passports, particularly students and young people, who can't get here by 4 p.m. (on weekdays)," Spears said. He added that his team will take advantage of unused office space on the weekend to process multiple passports simultaneously.

About 12.6 million passports were issued in 2011, with more than 481,000 issued in Illinois, according to the U.S. Department of State.