Make immigration work.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A new study provides evidence that America's immigration system remains as dysfunctional and ineffective as it is unfair and unsafe.

A report released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center says the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States actually surpassed the number of authorized immigrants during the past five years.

Think about that for a moment. At a time when this country has spent billions of dollars trying to create impermeable borders - and when the Bush administration has made homeland security a top priority - U.S. immigration policies are functioning like a broken fire hydrant.

More than 34 million immigrants now live in the United States. Nearly a third are undocumented immigrants whose hard labor keeps this nation's farms, nurseries, restaurants, hotels, construction sites and other workplaces supplied with a ready source of inexpensive labor.

Although many U.S. businesses could not function without them, these immigrants must risk everything to come to this country. They cross deadly wastelands and risk being locked in freight cars or sealed in cargo containers in the desperate hope that they will make it to this country alive.

Those who survive the journey are forced to live deep in the shadows for fear they will be deported. In many communities, they are resented and viewed with unwarranted suspicion. They are accused of taking jobs from U.S. citizens, even though most of those jobs otherwise would go unfilled. They are accused - wrongly - of not paying taxes and of devouring government services to which they're not entitled.

This country desperately needs a new immigration policy, one that does more than build walls and post armed guards along our borders. Congress and the White House must stop putting off the tough job of comprehensive immigration reform.

A bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., provides an excellent starting point. Called the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, the heart of the bill is a new temporary visa program that would allow foreign workers to take jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. Undocumented immigrants already here in the United States would be eligible to apply for six-year visas and to apply for permanent immigration status - provided they clear security checks, and pay back taxes and $2,000 fines.

Some will howl that the bill provides amnesty. But that's a distortion. It requires acknowledgment of wrongdoing and prescribes a clear, substantial course of remedial action. Critics should also ask themselves what incentive illegal immigrants would have to emerge from the shadows without the powerful lure of legal status, perhaps even citizenship.

Since his election in 2000, Bush has repeatedly promised to lead the fight for immigration reform. With less than three years left in the White House, it's time for him to deliver on that promise and to work with Congress to create a fairer, safer, more effective and humane immigration system.