Meanwhile, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., have introduced what amounts to an illegal-immigrant amnesty bill. If it becomes law, millions of illegal workers could eventually gain citizenship. They?d simply have to pay $1,000 and work for six years before seeking permanent residency.

That would make little sense. If you reward people who are here illegally, you?re simply going to encourage more people to come illegally. It would be better to offer illegals $1,000 to leave.
After all, there are up to 12 million illegals in the United States right now. Even if we decided to round them up and send them home, we couldn?t do it. We simply don?t have the manpower or the jail space. But they might return home if there was a financial incentive. And we could then give them amnesty of a sort, by allowing them to return -- as long as they do so legally.

At the same time, we should enforce our existing laws. It?s already illegal to hire someone who doesn?t have a social security number, for example. We ought to put the IRS on the case. That agency strikes fear into the hearts of legal Americans -- let?s have it go after the employers who hire illegals. If these employers start facing penalties, they?ll no longer have an incentive to hire illegals and, eventually, the flow of illegals will dry up.

Not everyone is going to like it if we do all this. Recently, Mexican President Vicente Fox waded into our immigration debate. He defended Mexicans who have crossed into the U.S. illegally by claiming they ?are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.?

Fox seems to have forgotten which country he?s the leader of. Even if every illegal went home, they?d still be legal Mexican citizens. It?s here in the U.S. that they?re illegal, and thus a concern. Of course, if all those people returned, Mexico would need to build an economy that can provide for all its citizens, instead of simply exporting so many of them.

The key is to limit illegal immigration and make sure our government has a handle on exactly who is coming across our borders. Until that happens, we won?t be as safe as we need to be.