The devil is in the details. When they wrote their version of “comprehensive immigration re-form,” the Senate was trying to solve a problem: What do we do with 12 million illegal immigrants and the credibility of a broken immigration system?

Under the Senate bill at least 10 million, plus their family members, get a chance at citizenship. Together they will add more than 35 million new people. About a million new illegal immigrants arrive every year; 60 percent come across our southern border, and 40 percent fly in from all over the world and overstay their visas. Even if we built a wall that stopped all illegal migrants crossing our southern border (a doubtful enterprise), millions of new illegals will still arrive by other means. The root of our problem is not at the border. The fact is, we’ve got a monstrous credibility problem, and the chaos at the border is only symptomatic.

In testimony before Congress the late Rep. Barbara Jordan, chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, said: “The credibility of immigration policy can be measured by a simple yardstick: people who should get in, do get in; people who should not get in are kept out, and people who are judged deportable are required to leave.” (www.utexas.edu/lbj/uscir)

The commission provided detailed recommendations addressing our growing “credibility problem.” It called for strict worksite enforcement against the employers, strict enforcement of our sponsorship laws, requiring immigrants to be financially responsible for their relatives, an end to most publicly funded benefits for illegals, and it came out “strongly and unanimously” against guest worker legislation. It also recommended actions for reducing fraudulent access to “breeder documents,” such as birth certificates, etc., used to establish identity, called for beefing up the Border Patrol and “prompt removal” of deportable aliens. In short, the commission focused on enforcement as the key to credibility.

Congress ignored most of these recommendations. At no point did the commission ever suggest that “earned legalization” should be part of “comprehensive immigration reform.” Nevertheless, the Senate is obsessed yet again with finding some way to provide illegals with “earned legalization,” i.e. forgiveness, and a path to citizenship. Here’s a partial list of the credibility problems in the Senate immigration bill from Sen. Chuck Grassley. Grassley explains: “I was burned once in l986 when I voted for amnesty … I’m not getting burned again.” (www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=63027)

1. An illegal alien can go from illegal to legal by paying a fine of $2,000. Many illegal aliens pay more than five times this amount to their smugglers. Also, the fine doesn’t have to be paid until they’ve been in the country for eight years.

2. Illegal aliens get to pay only three of their last five years of back taxes. Is this the standard we set for “earning” American citizenship? How many of us would like this tax break?

3. The Department of Homeland Security must perform background checks on 10 million illegal aliens in 90 days. Does this seem even remotely possible? Or will overwhelmed government bureaucracies simply rubber stamp the applications, as they did in the past?

4. Illegal aliens must prove they worked in the United States for three of the last five years. If they lack documentation from official sources, they’re allowed to ask any person who is not a relative to attest to their employment. We have no means of investigating fraudulent claims.

5. Employers get a tax pardon for hiring illegal aliens. Under this bill, businesses that hired illegal workers get off scot-free from paying taxes they owe the government.

Sen. Edward Kennedy called this bill “the most far-reaching immigration reform in our history.” Mainline media haven’t begun to clarify what this statement means. The Jordan Commission recommended serious reductions in legal immigration 10 years ago, as well as strict enforcement to stop illegal migration. But the Senate immigration bill, in addition to a sweeping amnesty for 10 million illegal aliens and their relatives, will also double legal immigration, from about 20 million under present law to about 40 million over the next two decades. (Robert Samuelson; The Washington Post, “What you don’t know about the immigration bill”; May 31)

In short, the Senate immigration bill, which most of us thought was about illegal immigrants, creates whole new visas for entering this country, and brings upon us a staggering increase in legal immigration. We were never consulted.

The House immigration bill, which calls for enforcement first, was characterized as “harsh” because it made illegal presence a felony. Before introducing this feature to the House bill, Rep. Sensenbrenner studied the immigration laws of six countries from whom we receive many immigrants and found that five of them, including Mexico, had similar laws, making illegal presence a felony. (Illegal re-entry is already a felony. Using a fraudulent Social Security card is also a felony.)

Nevertheless, when Rep. Sensenbrenner learned that Hispanics and Democrats were furious over this part of the bill, he introduced an amendment to remove it. The amendment failed when Demo-crats voted en masse to retain the felony (Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen voted to retain keeping illegal presence a felony), which they then used to smear the House bill as “harsh” and “anti-immigrant.”

Nearly every country in the world is now tightening their immigration systems. But in America, the Senate is constructing a radically new future. Both President Bush and the Democrats support legislation which leads to open borders and staggering population growth, but neither are speaking forthrightly.

In a world where one billion people live on less than a dollar a day, we shouldn’t be surprised by the number who want to become Americans. But we should be surprised at politicians who seem to care so little about how these numbers impact our nation.

We deserve an honest debate over immigration. An open border is not inevitable; it results from legislation which deliberately rewards illegal migration, year after year. And that’s where the Senate bill leads.

Jonette Christian is a co-founder of Mainers for Sensible Immigration Policy and can be reached at jonette@acadia.net.