U.S. Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN), one of two Muslim members of Congress, has said that the United States doesn't have the resources to deport all illegal immigrants.

"We don't have the resources to fill buses and ships with illegal immigrants and deport them," he told Pakistan Post after addressing a seminar at the Capitol on October 20. He said he did not doubt that the undocumented immigrants had broken the law, but pointed out that they now have family and children here. He believes that the biggest hurdle to immigration reform are the people who oppose giving amnesty to undocumented immigrants, but he expressed hope that the immigration reform bill would be passed by April 2010.

Besides immigration, the United States faces many other huge challenges such as the economy, the environment and healthcare, Carson said. He was not sure how the public healthcare system would look, given that the United States has never had one.

Commenting on the role of the Pakistani community in American society, he said that they play an important role in sectors such as business, medicine, engineering, science, and education, but they too are adversely affected by the economic slowdown.

Congressman Carson, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, advised committee members that the War on Terror could not be won unless the American-Muslim community was involved in securing America, particularly the Pakistani Americans who love America as much as they do Pakistan. The Pakistani-American community, said the Congressman, could play a key role in strengthening the bridge of friendship between Pakistan and the United States.

He acknowledged that Pakistan was an important Islamic country that had rendered great sacrifices in the war against terrorism, but he deemed the real threat to the United States as lying within its own borders and not outside of them—an analysis he communicated to Homeland Security Department officials. He identified these threats as racist and anti-immigration groups. He urged Pakistani Americans, other South Asians, Latinos and Arabs to seek employment at the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, Citizen and Immigration Services and other federal agencies to show their dedication to the United States. It would also help build bridges of understanding between communities, cultures and religions, he added.

Pakistani Americans are people of exceptional talent, said the Congressman, and must protect their rights according to the boundaries of the law.