A favorite argument of the people who support amnesty for illegal aliens goes something like this: Current immigration laws, just like Prohibition and the 55 mph speed limit, cannot be enforced, so we might as well adjust to reality.

That is like telling a woman, "You can't fight your rapist, so relax and enjoy it." There must be a better solution.

Comparing the ongoing invasion of the United States by illegal aliens to Prohibition or the 55 mph speed limit is totally unreasonable. The majority of Americans wanted those laws repealed. But the people, by a wide margin, want our immigration laws enforced.

That's why Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Zell Miller, D-Ga., held a hearing last week on their Homeland Security Enhancement Act, which is designed to promote cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities.

It is a reflection of the peculiar times in which we live that there is a need for such a law. But the failure of federal and state law enforcement personnel to cooperate to protect us from crimes committed by illegal aliens is as dangerous as the now-famous failure of the CIA and the FBI to talk to each other about terrorists.

Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., is the sponsor of a similar bill, called the CLEAR Act, to give state and local authorities the power to routinely enforce federal immigration laws. The bill has 120 co-sponsors and is one border security bill that has a chance to pass this year.

The numbers tell us why this cooperation is essential. Our fewer than 2,000 federal immigration agents cannot possibly cope with the problems caused by 10 million illegal aliens. We don't want to hire 500,000 new federal agents.

The solution is to use the police officers who walk their beats, drive our highways and come into contact with illegal aliens every day. The federal government desperately needs the eyes, ears and cooperation of our 650,000 state and local police officers.

The open-borders lobby is vehemently opposed to this sensible cooperation. Many city and local governments have adopted so-called "sanctuary" laws, or policies to forbid local police to ask anyone whether they are legally in the United States.

Police officers who suspect violations of immigration law are often prohibited from detaining illegal aliens or contacting federal immigration authorities. Sanctuary laws even prohibit police officers from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities.

We've seen many examples of illegal aliens who were stopped by local police but set free, only to commit crimes instead of being deported. One such case is the notorious Dec. 19, 2002, gang rape in Queens, N.Y., of a mother of two by five illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America who had been arrested several times, but never turned over to the immigration agency.

The most famous example is Washington, D.C.-area sniper Lee Malvo, a Jamaican who was caught by local law enforcement in Bellingham, Wash. He was identified as an illegal alien who should have been deported, but instead was set free by federal authorities. Continued...