Will millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States finally get their status legalized? Will they be granted the long-awaited amnesty? Much indicates they will.

President Barack Obama, 48, said he was going to reform the immigration system by the end of this year. The information is official and was released by the president's advisor Cecilia Munoz, 47. The general public learned about it from a serious and opinionated New York Times.

The goal of the immigration program will be "policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system," Cecilia Munoz said. She also informed that the President is to deliver his view on changes to the immigration law in May. Over the summer he will create working commissions of experts from both parties whose task will be to devise the plan. When ready, it would be submitted to Congress for consideration in the fall.

The White House announced that amnesty is not going to be given higher priority than alleviating the crisis or handling the health care reform.

Still, during the presidential campaign Obama promised changes to the law – he addressed his promises mainly to the Latino electorate, whose number reaches 10 million people in the United States – and now is going to keep his word.

Will you have to pay to come out of the shadow?

What will the amnesty look like? We can expect undocumented immigrants will have to pay fees for revealing their lack of status – probably around $2,000. The amnesty will most likely be accompanied with stepping up security at the boarders and fines for employers who continue employing undocumented workers. A person will also have to prove that they have lived in the United States long enough to be considered for amnesty. How long exactly, we do not know yet.

All too many promises

The reform plans have already generated criticism. Opponents are of the opinion that it may be more difficult than it seemed during the campaign for the president to keep his promise in regards to the reform. The president is undertaking too many reforms. The major obstacle though, is unemployment. Until recently, immigrant workers were needed mostly in employment sectors where Americans did not want to work. Now, even such positions are hard to find, and with the fact that there are millions of unemployed already in the country, the government does not encourage bringing in more people into a tight job market. It will be easy for opponents of amnesty to mobilize the public to their side, once they ring the unemployment bell.

"It makes no sense giving hoards of foreigners a work permit while millions of Americans are looking for jobs and are going through difficult times," says Roy Beck from NumbersUSA, an advocacy group fighting to limit immigration. In his opinion, when Obama undertakes immigration reform, he will be up for a lot of criticism.

President Obama assured Americans they will not lose jobs because of the reform. After all, the immigrants who will benefit from the reform are already here and working. The reform will only enable them to legalize their status.

Bush didn't make it

The topic is still a hot issue, and once the discussion about amnesty starts, it will be burning. Former President George Bush, 63, did not manage to carry out the reform due to congressional opposition.