very few businesses are suffering the consequences of violating the law that prohibits hiring undocumented workers.

Get-tough enforcement targets illegal immigrants

But Homeland Security's crackdown doesn't extend to employers who hire illegal workers 

The dichotomy of American immigration policy is perfectly captured by the fact that even as thousands of illegal immigrants are being rounded up, fined and deported, very few businesses are suffering the consequences of violating the law that prohibits hiring undocumented workers. The heart of the problem is that the law no longer matches the facts on the ground.

The Washington Post, reporting on a year-end review by the Department of Homeland Security, found that only 2 percent of all arrests involving illegal workers, which by itself represented a huge surge in apprehensions, actually resulted in any criminal action against employers.

Fewer than 100 employers, supervisors or hiring officials were arrested during 2007 as opposed to nearly 4,900 arrests of workers, or providers of fake documents and others in the business of employing and easing these undocumented workers into employment.

Cynically, it might be said that undocumented workers don't vote or contribute to political campaigns, while employers do. But there's another element at work here. These businesses need the labor and these workers, documented or not, are willing providers of labor. These arrests might fulfill the requirements of the law, but they portend a terrible blow to the economy of the country, not to mention the disruption of the lives of thousands of workers who are raising families and earning their own living.

Such concerns about economic damage haven't dissuaded the supporters of anti-immigrant laws in Arizona, which is embarking on the toughest employer sanctions of any state. Employers in Arizona, with the new year, now face the possibility of losing their licenses to conduct their business if they are found to violate the law that prohibits hiring an illegal worker. A state economy that rests on a workforce that had been at least 15 percent undocumented rides on the outcome of the law. Many of those workers, it is believed, have left the state. One shudders to think what the outcome would be if 7 percent of the population of Texas -- that's the percent of the state population estimated to be here without documents -- were to leave their jobs and depart for other places.

No one is arguing that the United States simply continue to ignore the reality that 12 million people are in the country illegally. The continued influx of hundreds of thousands of people without some knowledge of who they are and where they are going presents a security threat. And then there is the life in the shadows that many workers who enter illegally are consigned to, subject to abuses and being victimized. But most pointedly is the fact that the majority of the 12 million are leading productive lives in an American story much like that of previous immigrant waves.

A recent wire story from McClatchey Newspapers told of one town in Mexico, Cuautla, whose immigrants to Washington state now own 300 restaurants there and possibly as many as a thousand in the United States. The issue is the lack of an immigration measure that establishes a legal presence for the immigrants already here and a way to regulate the flow of others in the future.

The irony is that the demand for labor and the willingness of employers to risk prosecution creates the very draw that has sparked a backlash to immigration. And that has prompted federal authorities to crack down on illegal workers. Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security chief, is determined to regain credibility on the issue of enforcing immigration laws. But he may be in the impossible situation of enforcing a law on illegal immigration on which the public's way of life has become dependent.

   Of course there will be adjustments to the leaving of millions of illegals Some of the adjustments may even be positive lower taxes,less underinsured motorists,neighborhoods that dont resemble a third world nation,less waiting in hospital Emergency rooms,and on and on.While if you believe the stories they tell they only fill jobs Americans wont do(at least not at the price they will) or dont want (again the price to do it)  These are invaders sent by Mexico. If you want to see a change in that country build an inpeneratable wall and enforce our laws. When they return to their country of origin,they can hit the streets and protest for a better government. Work hard to either change or overthrow a government that oppresses them and starves them and then says go north for employment and if enough of you get accross we win.

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