EDITORIAL BORDER DISORDER MINUTEMAN PATROLS ARE THE WRONG WAY TO FIX FAILED IMMIGRATION LAWS.

THE few hundred participants in the Minuteman Project, self-proclaimed protectors of the U.S.-Mexico border, are no doubt patting themselves on the back.

Since these anti-immigration activists flocked to southeastern Arizona to patrol the border, authorities report that the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross in the area has dropped sharply.

Mexican authorities claim it was actually their stepped-up border enforcement and intervention efforts that discouraged border traffic in the area. Both Mexican and U.S. officials say immigrants will delay their crossing until it's safer, or they'll find other parts of the border from which to enter.

It doesn't really matter who or what is responsible for the decrease, though, because the numbers themselves are meaningless and only serve to illustrate the fallacy of the immigration opponents' theory. They believe that if only the border was better protected, illegal immigration would all but end.

That's a ludicrous - and dangerous - assumption. It's not the border that's the problem; it's the United States' failed immigration policy.

On the one hand, the federal government makes it tough for those seeking the low-wage jobs that Americans don't want to get temporary legal status. But since many employers are willing to look the other way and employ illegal workers, the job-seekers know if they can just survive the perils and cost of crossing the border, they will find opportunity in America.

Once in the U.S., their illegal status creates an unhealthy situation for them, for society and for national security. The Minuteman Project and similar groups complain about high costs of providing the health care system, the schools, social services and jails for them while ignoring the jobs and services they provide, the sales taxes they pay. Some even pay Social Security taxes without hope of getting a benefit, a recent report found.

The federal government has sent inconsistent messages on the immigration issue for years, allowing it to fester into the anger and resentment that feeds movements like the Minuteman Project and the danger of vigilante justice that it represents.

If the activists really want to do something to discourage illegal immigration, they would do better to take their patrols to Capitol Hill and the White House.

Unless the Congress and President Bush get serious about legislation reforming the U.S. immigration policy and rationalizing the rules for coming to America, the flood of people crossing the border illegally will continue unabated.

This failed policy isn't good for people who want the opportunity American offers and it isn't good for America itself.