The House-Senate immigration conference committee has accepted an amendment that would double the number of Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in Iowa to 10.

Originally proposed by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, this immigration reform bill will also include a provision by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley that would expand investigations for state and local law enforcement and allow them to apprehend and detain illegal workers.

This could mean agents would be permanently assigned to offices in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

Currently, Iowa’s immigration services operate in Omaha.

While this bill is a first step in helping INS crack down on illegal immigrants, it should not be treated as a victory, which is what Harkin and Grassley are touting it as.

There are more important issues at stake in this country that would be worth celebrating a victory over.

For starters, decreases in the costs of education and health care would be excellent issues to tackle.

These issues and others that directly affect Americans still have a ways to go.

But they should be placed higher on the priority lists of our legislators.

Our senators should not be addressing how many millions they can spend to hire five more immigration agents to the state when the country is hearing debates about education and health care cuts being tackled on the campaign circuit everyday.

These are a few of the concerns that currently affect the citizens of this country.

The increase of illegal immigrants into the country is important, but our government should concentrate more on how to better serve our citizens.

Is illegal immigration an important issue in American politics?

Of course it is.

But in comparison to other issues, in a time when we are worried about a budget crunch, is our focus in the right place?