The undocumented illegal immigrant issue is coming to a head here in the city and there doesn’t seem to be a compromise available to solve everyone’s concerns.

There are valid arguments from city leaders, taxpayers and both the legal and illegal immigrant communities, which makes the issue itself all the more sticky, because it’s hard when there are just two segments of the population who disagree, never mind three or four segments.

Ward 1 Alderman Bill Roche was right that we can’t just blindly pass resolutions welcoming illegal immigrants who don’t pay for the resources that the taxpayers carry the burden for.

On the other hand, we can’t ignore that they’re here and as human beings we need to provide vital services such as police, fire and emergency medical care.

Like all great debates, it has an ugly side when people make wild and uncalled for accusations that the city‚Äôs inability to issue an ‚Äúopen door‚Äù policy is racist and discriminatory in nature.  That‚Äôs just silly.

The mention of racism comes up far too easily today – whether it’s about this issue or recently in the local alderman-at-large race – the thought of someone running for office in this city actually having anti-immigrant views is beyond preposterous.

The issue is so complex in nature that it would be impossible to deal with on a local level at this point – the Sanctuary City Resolution was created when there was an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 illegal immigrants – a fraction of what the number is today.

The issue really needs to be dealt with on a national level through wide reaching immigration reform, so that many of the undocumented immigrants already here have some kind of reliable mechanism to convert themselves into a more legal status, whether that be through visas, green cards or permanent citizenship.

And so the debate will rage on, because it has become apparent that people are tired of waiting and leaving the issue alone and letting it run its course, which is a shame because it‚Äôs still better in this city for an illegal immigrant than it would be in say, Andover or Lexington.  Watch, we will probably now be called a racist paper.  Give us a break.

So until the federal government gets its act in gear with Immigration Reform, we as a local municipality should really wait and see what happens and then address local concerns at that time.  Stop trying to put the cart before the horse ‚Äì because there is no way at this point to come to a compromise that will satisfy everyone locally without some kind of federal direction, period.