EDITORIAL BUSH AND THE BORDER PRESIDENT'S PLAN MAY BE IMPERFECT, BUT IMMIGRATION STATUS QUO IS INTOLERABLE.

AT a time when his popularity is in the doldrums, President George W. Bush has waded into one of the most contentious, politically self- destructive issues in modern American politics - immigration.

Give Bush credit: For two decades, politicians have done all they can to ignore the issue, allowing a manifestly broken system to wreak havoc on American society. Bush is confronting a serious national problem that most others in Washington haven't had the guts to even acknowledge.

That said, it's hard to know what to make of his plan, as it's woefully short on details. Bush wants to decrease illegal immigration by tightening up the border, while increasing legal immigration through a guest-worker program. But he hasn't spelled out how the guest-worker program would work, or what enforcement mechanisms would safeguard against its abuse.

Absent these details, which would presumably be hashed out in the legislative process, there's no way to know whether the Bush plan would really be a solution to the nation's immigration woes, or just political fluff.

So far, though, Bush seems to be headed in the right direction. Enforcement, although crucial, will not alone solve the problems of illegal immigration. Until there is a sane, compassionate way to allow self- sufficient, hard-working people who want only to come to the U.S. to work to do so legally, illegal immigration will continue to flourish, regardless of how much resources are dedicated to enforcement.

Conversely, once a functional legal immigration system is created for honest workers, law enforcement will be able to focus better on the most dangerous people crossing our borders - drug runners, other criminals and terrorists. In a post-9-11 world, we simply cannot continue to have millions of people anonymously entering our country.

Nor can we tolerate the nation's current system, which keeps ruthless coyotes in business, allows for rampant exploitation and abuse, and renders an entire class of people invisible. We can't accept policies that overwhelm local public services, undermine national security and punish those who obey the law.

Critics on all sides will no doubt point out many faults in Bush's plan, and hopefully their advice will lead to an even more sound policy. But in engaging this long-overdue national debate, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture: America's current immigration system is an abomination, and at this stage, any effort to reform it is a welcome one.