Debacles like that one make us less optimistic about the possibility of finding a compromise on immigration policy ...

Debacles like that one make us less optimistic about the possibility of finding a compromise on immigration policy. We have said that proposals for a guest-worker program and for legalizing illegal aliens would be improved if the federal government certified that it had control of the borders before any such measures took effect. The latest amnesty proposals generally include such "triggers"--but they have been watered down to meaninglessness. To implement an amnesty under these proposals, the government would merely have to show that it had hired more agents, deployed more technologies, and so on. Even the most comprehensive such proposal, that of Georgia senator Johnny Isakson, would not require the government to certify that the number of illegal border crossings and the size of the illegal population here had dramatically fallen. It may be that the only workable compromise is to enact enforcement measures now and defer settlement of the guest-worker and amnesty issues until another day. Proposals for "triggers," meanwhile, should trigger our suspicion.