"a highly controversial issue" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe any subject or issue that has many different opinions and is often disputed or argued about. For example, "The death penalty is a highly controversial issue that many people have strong opinions about."
How produce from the West Bank should be labelled – be it from Israeli-occupied or Palestinian territories – has become a highly controversial issue.
Where exactly medieval romance writers found their material when they were not simply copying classical or pseudo-classical models is still a highly controversial issue.
Basement building has become a highly controversial issue in London, where some underground schemes are so cavernous they have been dubbed "iceberg homes" because only a tiny fraction of the property is now visible above ground.
Though on November 13th a poll in the Asahi Shimbun, a newspaper, said 48% of those surveyed approved of the TPP, it is a highly controversial issue whose opponents shout much louder than its supporters.
Though near-universally supported today, the Civil Rights Act was a highly controversial issue in the United States as soon as it was proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
In Britain an act of Parliament immediately becomes part of the uncodified constitution; however, before acting on a highly controversial issue, Parliament must seek a popular mandate, which represents a majority other than the one that elected it.
Facial profiling has always been a highly controversial topic.
In any event, the introduction of a volatile, highly controversial issue like "marriage equality" is sure to scare off any moderates or Republicans that could be persuaded to support immigration reform.
The Cabinet Office paper, photographed on the tube and passed to Channel 4 News, examines the possibility of waiving collective responsibility for any vote on the highly controversial issue of expanding an airport in south-east England.
With Massachusetts about to become, on Monday, the first state to legalize same-sex marriages, the treatment of out-of-state couples has become one of the most controversial aspects of this highly controversial issue.
This complex and highly controversial issue was rushed through the House and Senate without enough time for legislators to even so much as read the content of the bills.
