For a change, enforce the immigration laws.(Correction notice)

ITEM: A July 5 Associated Press story reported: "The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday [in Philadelphia]. New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally."

CORRECTION: If Mayor Bloomberg is correct that his city's "economy would be a shell of itself' if half a million illegal aliens had not made their home in New York City--and if he is also correct that "the same holds true for the nation"--then the remedy for our struggling economy is obvious: why not encourage additional millions to come to here illegally so that the economy can be improved? In fact, why not automatically make legal anyone who comes here illegally, in the hope that the resulting flood of aliens would improve the economy even more?

It is hard to imagine that Bloomberg could have uttered this nonsense to a Senate committee with a straight face. On the whole, illegal immigrants harm our economy because they contribute relatively little in taxes while greatly increasing the taxpayer burden for education, healthcare, and the criminal justice system. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that illegal immigration costs the federal government $11 billion-$22 billion each year in direct net costs.

Mayor Bloomberg must have a clue as to how illegal immigration can run up government social-welfare costs, considering the tact that his city has both a large number of illegal aliens and a large social-welfare burden. Can't he connect the dots to conclude that New York City might be better, not worse, off if the half-million illegals in NYC were not there? Surely he can, but he wants instead to create a false impression so as to justify allowing the illegals to stay here.

Others simply argue that there are now too many illegals in this country to deport all of them. As noted in another AP account in April, President Bush "said that sending all the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants back to their home countries is not the answer. 'Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic--it's just not going to work,' Bush said. 'You know, you can hear people out there hollering it's going to work. It's not going to ...