EDITORIAL A BORDER FIX? PROSPECTS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM GET BRIGHTER.

THAT Senate Democrat and Republican leaders, as well as President George W. Bush, have agreed on a tentative immigration plan gives rise to hope that comprehensive reform may be here at last.

It's about time.

For 20 years, it's been no secret that America's immigration policies were badly broken. And since 9-11, it's been exceedingly clear that those broken polices endanger national security.

But getting the nation's leaders to actually revise our immigration laws has been a near-impossible feat. The Senate came close by passing a plan last year, but it was torpedoed in the House of Representatives.

This time around, the House has new leadership, but that's no guarantee of a different result.

The problem with immigration is that it bumps into several sacred cows, and outside of the Senate, the ideologues on all sides have been unwilling to compromise.

On the one hand, we have restrictionists who refuse to accept any plan that normalizes the status of some 12 million illegal immigrants already living here. On the other, there are immigration activists who oppose even sensible efforts at border enforcement or modest civil penalties for those who have violated the nation's laws.

Yet while both sides dig in their heels, the country goes without reform that it desperately needs.

Whatever becomes of the Senate's compromise plan, the final version of immigration reform must contain the following ingredients if it is to do any good:

A sensible system for new immigrants to enter the country legally. Greater enforcement may help shore up our borders, but only reasonable options for legal immigration will effectively end illegal immigration.

A mechanism for making the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here legal and, eventually, citizens. It's morally unacceptable -- and a security risk -- to have millions of people living here invisibly. The law must work to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows, thus protecting them from exploitation and all of us from the criminality that the current system encourages.

Realistic requirements. It will be of no value if the new law is as widely ignored and unenforced as the old ones. Onerous regulations that would preclude compliance should be an obvious nonstarter.

Within these general parameters, compromises of all kinds by all sides will be necessary. Immigration supporters and opponents alike, for example, will likely need to accept that a path to citizenship is the price to pay for tougher enforcement -- and vice versa.

The Senate compromise plan looks like a good start. Now it's up to the rest of Washington to finish the job.