Washington Post;

…Of course, this non-conversation about immigration reform has a lot in common with other non-conversations -- about Social Security reform, say, or health care reform -- that happen in Washington all the time. What makes it different is the deeper level of absurdity into which immigration policy has lately sunk. Consider this: Violent gangs of smugglers regularly cross the Mexican border into this country, where they conduct shootouts in broad daylight. At the same time, a whole new, post-Sept. 11 visa bureaucracy now regularly prevents distinguished scientists and pianists from visiting this country at all. In other words, you can get in if you're a gun-toting thug, but not if you're a visiting professor of neurology.

And consider this, too: American agriculture is now utterly dependent on the labor of millions of illegal immigrants. As a result, business lobbies have recently persuaded both right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats to back bills that would make it easier for companies to get temporary visas for their migrant workers, without whom they could not function. Yet this logical method of legalizing a huge swath of the underground economy -- which would be extremely useful from a "homeland security" point of view too -- is considered so politically explosive that few in Congress believe it can even be discussed so close to an election. Millions of illegal immigrants are here, in other words -- and 11/2 million more enter every year -- helping to keep food prices, restaurant bills and leaf-raking costs low, yet it's considered "controversial" even to admit that they exist.