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We should all be appalled by the handling of immigration policy since the last amnesty to 2.7 million illegals in 1986. Despite the promises of border enforcement then, almost no effort has been made to secure the nation's borders, and a further 12 to 20 million illegals have flooded into this country. This has led to the derogation of our society in a number of respects and is the subject of new federal legislation that will certainly worsen the problem.

The U.S. policy of ignoring illegal immigration has led to the massive importation of high school dropouts who are willing to flout the law in several respects and live at the great expense of society, often showing no interest in assimilating into American culture. This is unacceptable. If there are problems with the existing law, they should be examined on a logical basis. It may be that we need to permit more visas for educated immigrants, like engineers and scientists. It may even be that we need to allow more immigrants generally. However, ignoring the law is never a good solution. Here, it has merely led to a large populous that has been taught that it is good to ignore laws. If I were to ignore the laws requiring me to pay taxes, I am sure I would suffer far more severe consequences, much as the Border Patrol Agents who have suffered criminal convictions for attempting to enforce the border. We simply cannot pick and choose which laws to abide by.

This uncontrolled immigration is costing Americans jobs and is depressing wages. The most elementary law of economics is that when the supply of something (labor) increases, its price (wages) decreases. The claim there are jobs Americans will not do is a lie. There are jobs Americans will not do at the artificially depressed wages that are caused by uncontrolled immigration. This is a very different thing.

Access to low-cost illegal immigrant labor is accordingly a subsidy to those who employ the illegals that is shouldered by the American worker and the American taxpayer.

Many proponents of open borders say the taxpayer costs of illegal immigration are unknown. The Pilot & Today's recent editorial on this matter made the ludicrous argument that we needed to grant amnesty so that we could determine the true cost. However, a study released by the Heritage Foundation on May 21 dispels this myth. In fact, the average illegal immigrant family consumes $19,588 more in direct government benefits than it contributes in taxes. This comes to more than $1 Trillion during the next 10 years. How did the Heritage Foundation figure this out? Their data comes from the census reports of the immigrants. While The Wall Street Journal complains this is impossible since it is illegal for these immigrants to receive some of these benefits, it is clear the law is being ignored in this respect also. This data comes directly from the horse's mouth.

The latest proposed legislation, endorsed by the Pilot & Today, addresses these problems by:

n Granting amnesty to those who have fled on bail - Section 601(d)(1)(l);

n Granting amnesty to gang members - Section 602(g)(2);

n Allowing in-state tuition for illegals - Section 616;

n Providing free lawyers for illegals - Section 622(m); and

n Granting amnesty to an unlimited number of illegals who can produce two documents suggesting they were in the U.S. prior to January 1, 2007.

But there will be background checks under Section 601(h)(1) of the bill. The background checks must be completed in one business day, which is, of course, impossible.

Let's stop this nonsense.

Buck Buckland is a longtime resident of Steamboat, a Director of the Yampa Valley Citizens for Common Sense, a member of the Conservative Leadership Council of Northwest Colorado and the Heritage Foundation, the former Chairman of the Routt County Republican Party, and a decorated veteran of the U.S. Air Force.