New Immigration Law: Experts, Critics Say it's a good start, but not enough to fix system

The new immigration law that allows certain undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States while applying for permanent visas is drawing mostly positive reaction, but immigration experts and critics say that more is needed if there is to be true reform to the broken immigration system.

Seth Freed Wessler, an investigative reporter with colorlines.com called the new legislation a setp in the right direction, but "the pressure is really on" for Washington to undertake comprehensive immigration reform.

Noting the hardships that immigrant parents in U.S. detention that he has spoken to go through, he said that because of the current issues with immigration law, those parents "are losing touch with their kids" because of the current unaccommodating laws. "Their kids are being taken out of these families and are stuck in foster homes."

Among one of such laws that have been separating immigrant families was the previous policy that forced undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to return to their native land in order to apply for citizenship. Under those provisions, immigrants found to have been living illegally within the U.S. for an extended amount of tie could be barred from re-entering the country for years.

A new change in immigration policy, approved by the Obama administration last week, changed that rule, allowing immigrants who could prove that their family members would suffer hardships without them to stay in the country on a provisional waiver for an extended period of time while applying for permanent citizenship.

However, those immigrants would have to return to their homeland as part of the visa application process.

Immigration advocates such as Carmen Wong Ulrich, president of Alta Wealth Management, and Democratic consultant Jamal Simmons told MSNBC that the majority of people that the U.S. deports are not taking jobs from Americans as they are primarily working in low-wage labor jobs that form the backbone of the U.S. economy.

In his State of American Business address this week, Tom Donahue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called on Washington to do more to fix the immigration system, Donahue pointing out that skilled workers were needed in the U.S. to prevent American jobs from being outsourced to other countries.

"Even with high unemployment, we have millions of job openings that go unfilled," Donahue said. "Either the workers come here to fill those jobs or the companies take all of their jobs somewhere else."

Cautiously optimistic, National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguía told Politico recently that Latinos were going into the discussion on immigration reform with "both eyes wide open."

"We are very clear that this is not going to be easy, but I do believe there is a chance, and it's a good chance that we could move something in the next six to eight months," Murguía said. "I do believe members are actually more interested in talking about immigration reform than on issues where they are going to feel more stuck, on the fiscal cliff and some of these gun issues."

However, noting that the lines in Washington could get divisive on immigration reform between Democrats and Republicans, Donahue called out legislators in the nation's capitol to get the job done.

"In this country-and this is a country that can still get big things done-do we have the leaders with the courage to put the country first ahead of their own careers, pols, ideologies and egos?" he said.