. . . and flows

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As the Senate starts debating immigration legislation this week, missing will be one of the most important elements for any meaningful immigration reform. That's the need to cut legal immigration.

In fact, the bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee goes the wrong direction. It would blow the lid off some legal immigrant visas, almost doubling the permanent resident visas allotted yearly and giving out thousands more temporary visas.

Not only would the Senate bill bring in markedly more foreigners through supposed legal routes, it would amnesty the 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens already in this country. This profligate approach is a recipe for disaster.

Why is the Senate going the wrong direction, as compared with the U.S. House's enforcement-first approach? Do we need higher legal immigration, as elitists suggest?

(1) Legal immigration and illegal immigration are two sides of the same coin. High legal immigration means high illegal immigration. When we've had lower legal immigration, we've experienced less illegal immigration.

The foreign-born share of the U.S. population has risen sharply over the last 40 years. So has the illegal alien component of the foreign-born population. Illegal aliens made up 21 percent of the foreign-born in 1980, a quarter in 2000 and 28 percent in 2005. Half of the top 10 source countries are also top illegal alien senders. These include El Salvador, China, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines.

(2) Mexico is the biggest source of both legal and illegal immigrants. Thirty percent of the foreign-born are Mexicans, and more than half of U.S.-resident Mexicans are illegal aliens. Mexicans make up 3 times the proportion of the next three sending countries combined (China, Philippines, India).

Mexicans will clearly benefit the most from much higher immigration and from another amnesty -- leading to more of the same immigration troubles down the line, in spades.

(3) Amnesties have exacerbated our immigration problems in many ways. This one will be no different.

The illegal population replenished itself in less than a decade following the 1986 amnesty. The number of illegal alien residents doubled from 1990 to 2000, from 3.5 million to 7 million. By 2005, about 10 million illegal aliens lived in the United States -- more than triple the number of IRCA amnesty recipients, triple the illegal alien population in 1980 and twice the level of illegal immigration in 1996.