Vision needed on immigration

All last weekend, Spanish-language newscasts bubbled with reports about the massive immigrant marches. In Los Angeles, a popular talk radio host helped pull half-a-million protesters into the streets. In San Antonio, Phoenix, Houston and other cities, marchers turned out in droves. American flags mixed with Mexican flags. One young woman said, "A sleeping giant has awakened."

Hispanics were protesting a bill that the Senate is about to consider that would mandate a fence be built along the southern border and would reclassify illegal immigrants as felons. We have opposed the wall and the felony charges from the beginning. We prefer what President Bush is calling "a balanced approach" and Sen. Ted Kennedy has labeled "a comprehensive solution."

Yes, security at the border must be beefed up. Terrorists slipping through the sieve there could wreak havoc here. Yet, at the same time, there is no practical way to send the millions of illegal immigrants already working here packing. Declaring them felons would simply create millions of fugitives. America can't go back. It must move ahead.

In short, our solution to immigration woes mirrors our position on Iraq. There, we have ended up in a predicament that might have been avoided if the nation's focus had been sharper earlier. But now the reasons for the problem are not as important as the solutions. The nation must see both crises through.

A guest-worker program for illegal immigrants — an idea championed by members of both political parties — would allow those here to stay if they can prove they are gainfully employed. It would not give them any special rights. And those who refuse to show they are productive could then be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

As for the border, $20 billion has been spent over the past 10 years to secure it, yet illegal immigrants continue to seep into the country unchallenged. The nation doesn't need bigger fences; it needs better ideas.

We challenge the U.S. Senate to wrestle with these problems earnestly this election year. The time for stopgap solutions is over. The nation deserves — and demands — more.