EDITORIAL POLICY OF HUMAN SUFFERING CRISIS AND DANGER OF HUMAN SMUGGLING EXPOSE NEED FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM.

AMERICA'S porous borders have allowed a vast class of people without identities to flood our communities and created opportunities for terrorists and criminals of all sorts.

Last week, authorities broke up smuggling rings operating in Los Angeles and across California that were bringing women from South Korea through Mexico and Canada to act as virtual slaves in the sex trade.

The federal government's failure to control the borders and Congress' failure to engage the problem has created a true human-rights crisis.

If smugglers can sneak in truckloads of slaves, how easy would it be for a few intrepid terrorists to slip themselves through?

Pretty easy, it turns out.

Authorities report that Tijuana is a regular gateway for Middle Easterners to sneak unknown into the country. Many have ties to terrorist organizations hostile to the United States.

This is an untenable situation.

It's bad enough that the look-the-other-way policy has resulted in a shadow underclass of as many 10 million who have no official status but are a key part of the country's economy. But that's nothing compared with the potential for human suffering and crisis that we risk by allowing people to slip into the country unknown.

There's been vague discussions about guest-worker programs in recent years. It's time for the nation's lawmakers to do more than talk and finally create a comprehensive and honest immigration policy that builds safe and secure pathways for temporary workers so that they don't serve as cover for the slavers and terrorists.

Otherwise, it seems all too likely that it would take another large-scale tragedy to shake some sensible immigration policy free.

While the nation fights terrorists abroad at great cost, the dangers at home mount because of the failure of leadership on this critical issue.