Fix legal immigration and enforcement takes care of itself

Democrats and Republicans seem hell-bent on debating immigration only after it happens. Amnesty or deportation? This leaves the more fundamental question of how immigrants can come legally on the back burner. If Congress could modernize the legal immigration system, enforcement would be both easier and more popular.

Congress has not substantively updated America’s legal immigration system since reforms in 1986 and 1990 — almost four decades ago. In those days, most illegal immigrants crisscrossed the border seasonally. Ronald Reagan urged Congress to “make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit.”