How to fix it, how to address it, what to do about immigration reform? It's a challenging issue that our nation is dealing with.

You may remember just over a year ago, federal immigration officials raided Janco in Mishawaka and three dozen alleged illegal aliens were arrested.

Since then, a local priest asked several Notre dame departments to study what would happen to South bend's economy if every undocumented immigrant was deported.

After looking at the results, “harmful” is the word panelists used to describe what this would mean.

Wednesday night, reverend Chris Cox of St. Adalbert's Parish along with legal, educational, and healthcare service providers discussed how this study highlights the urgency of finding a solution to immigration reform locally and nationally.

Leading a church that is two thirds Hispanic has been an honor, yet a challenge for Reverend Cox.

It’s been an honor, because he says they bring new life in South Bend but, a challenge making them feel welcome as immigrants.

Reverend Cox says, “These men and women who are serving our country and armed forces on the fast track can't even get through it says there's a basic fundamental breakdown in the system.”

That's why he and a panel of health, educational, and legal experts in the community say it's time to look at immigrants not as an issue, but human beings with value.

The study estimate that in total, the immigrant population contributes between $2 million-$10.5 per month.

Abigail Wozniak, an Assistant Economics Professor at Notre Dame explains how these numbers were calculated.

Wozniak says, “How much you spend on food, income you bring in to the house, mortgage, rent, these are all things that go into the community and then on a negative liability side, we took out benefits undocumented workers received. We hope that community leaders will be interested in the study and take it seriously.”

Wozniak says these results should be published some time next week. Once they are, they hope to get input from political leaders at the local, state, and federal level.