There are approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States, according to the United States Citizen and Immigration Services Web site.

California clearly is the leader when it comes to the numbers - about 2.8 million illegal immigrant reside there, followed by high numbers in Texas and Florida.

When it comes to dealing with illegal immigration, the southern states are the ones that really need to step up. They're the ones most directly affected by immigration as their borders are being penetrated by illegal aliens hoping to create a new life in the United States.

So why is a small town in Pennsylvania, a state not even on the top 10 list for number of resident illegal aliens, emerging on the forefront of the immigration issue?

Hazleton City Council passed a new law on Friday that makes the towns already-tough immigration law even tougher by putting pressure on landlords and employers to snuff out illegal immigrations and refuse jobs and rooms to them.

That puts a lot of pressure on the landlords and employers, who would have to go through vigorous training to identify forged papers.

Kudos to the small town of about 30,000 for making a splash out of this issue.

But this is far too complicated for one town to take on and expect to make a substantial change.

All it's going to do is create more division in the country.

Republican Mayor Lou Barletta vocally led the campaign for this ordinance, and it's no secret that toughening immigration laws is an important platform for many Republican politicians.

But there are towns dotting Pennsylvania with Democratic governments and much less restrictive immigration ordinances.

Having multiple towns with multiple policies will create large problems.

Does this country really need another Republican versus Democrat division? That's what this will eventually boil down to.

Is it really a good idea to force illegal immigrants into crowding the Pennsylvania towns not as strict as Hazleton has now proven itself to be?

At minimum, the state legislature needs to create a statewide law regarding immigration to encourage consistency across Pennsylvania. A better solution would be for the politicians in Washington, D.C. to take a cue from Hazleton and enact a national law to unify the country's standpoint against illegal immigration.