For a change, enforce the immigration laws.

ITEM: A July 5 Associated Press story reported: "The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday [in Philadelphia]. New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally."

CORRECTION: If Mayor Bloomberg is correct that his city's "economy would be a shell of itself' if half a million illegal aliens had not made their home in New York City--and if he is also correct that "the same holds true for the nation"--then the remedy for our struggling economy is obvious: why not encourage additional millions to come to here illegally so that the economy can be improved? In fact, why not automatically make legal anyone who comes here illegally, in the hope that the resulting flood of aliens would improve the economy even more?

It is hard to imagine that Bloomberg could have uttered this nonsense to a Senate committee with a straight face. On the whole, illegal immigrants harm our economy because they contribute relatively little in taxes while greatly increasing the taxpayer burden for education, healthcare, and the criminal justice system. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that illegal immigration costs the federal government $11 billion-$22 billion each year in direct net costs.

Mayor Bloomberg must have a clue as to how illegal immigration can run up government social-welfare costs, considering the tact that his city has both a large number of illegal aliens and a large social-welfare burden. Can't he connect the dots to conclude that New York City might be better, not worse, off if the half-million illegals in NYC were not there? Surely he can, but he wants instead to create a false impression so as to justify allowing the illegals to stay here.

Others simply argue that there are now too many illegals in this country to deport all of them. As noted in another AP account in April, President Bush "said that sending all the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants back to their home countries is not the answer. 'Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic--it's just not going to work,' Bush said. 'You know, you can hear people out there hollering it's going to work. It's not going to work.'" Yet, there is no serious proposal being considered by lawmakers that would even approach this solution.

Suppose it is unrealistic to deport all illegal aliens, as apologists for illegal immigration claim. Why not at least start reducing the number by deporting the ones we can? Why not begin discouraging illegal immigration by enforcing the laws and making it difficult for aliens to be here illegally? The real point is that at least 11 million aliens are breaking our laws with impunity, and Congress and the president, to varying degrees, want to reward them for doing so.

Here's a radical thought: what about enforcing the law?

The Border Patrol can't do the job alone, especially while being subverted by the lack of enforcement elsewhere. And scant enforcement is in large part why there are so many illegal aliens. There would also be more robberies or rapes if authorities decided it was too much of a bother to enforce the laws against those acts. Businesses and border-jumpers alike have learned there is little risk in hiring illegals. If the job magnet were turned off, the attraction would diminish, and attrition would ensue.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, put it this way in National Review Online:

   The amount of investigative time devoted
   to worksite enforcement of immigration
   laws fell steadily from 1999
   to 2003, dropping by more than half,
   according to the GAO. The number
   of worksite arrests fell by 84 percent.
   And, from 1999 to 2004, the number
   of fines issued to employers fell by
   99 percent, plummeting to a laughable
   nationwide total of three....

      And it's not just jobs. The government
   at all levels has taken many actions
   over the past few years to make
   life easier for illegal aliens--the
   Treasury Department signaling to
   banks that Mexico's illegal-alien ID
   card is an acceptable credential for
   opening bank accounts; legislatures
   offering in-state tuition subsidies to
   illegals attending state universities;
   and city councils barring local police
   from using immigration law in the
   course of their duties. In other words,
   we've told prospective illegal aliens
   that they'll have to risk their lives to
   get in, but once they're clear of the
   border, they're home free.