Illegal immigration is back in the news, as though it had ever really gone away, and this is not a good thing for anyone. Let me be clearer: it's a bad thing that we have no control over, or clear understanding of, who enters this country, and where, and in what numbers. It would be good thing if we could address this problem honestly.

Speaking for myself, I'd be glad if I didn't have to state a position on the whole matter, because of the inevitability of offending virtually anyone whose understanding of the matter is shaded by their personal interests. (For the record, I think my past column on this subject holds up well.) More specifically, FM&T readers include, I confidently assume, some people who employ or have employed undocumented immigrants. I don't think they're criminals; I hope they wouldn't accuse me of bigotry for expecting them to comply with existing federal laws.

The Senate immigration legislation that failed earlier this summer was probably offered in the right spirit of reassessing the situation as it exists. (That bill, backed by the Bush Administration, would have created a way for millions of illegal immigrants to obtain legal standing, and eventually apply for legal residency, and it would have created a guest-worker program.) 

Opponents of the bill, however, built their objections on the premise that the proposal did not effectively address the domestic-security aspects of illegal immigration.  The bill would have increased efforts at border security, but that plainly was not the focus of the proposal, which was clear by the fairly low level of federal funding proposed for those efforts.

Now, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security is implementing new rules by which (among other changes) employers who hire persons with questionable Social Security documentation may face criminal sanctions, i.e.,  workers whose Social Security numbers don't match their names.

So, after working with Congress to try to make it easier and smoother for businesses to regularize their employment issues, the Administration now is preparing to threaten those businesses for failing to comply with the regulations they (the federal agencies) have allowed to go unenforced for decades. Is this their final position, or just a new one?

Is it really any surprise that there's so much mistrust between the pro-immigrant and the pro-border security  constituencies? The laws we have aren't working, but they have never been fully supported by the federal government nor enforced by its agencies. Until everyone honestly acknowledges their agendas with immigration politics — cheap labor, human rights, domestic security, electoral demographics — changed policies and new proposals are the only progress we'll see.