In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the last major immigration reform

, granting a broad amnesty and twinning that with tougher enforcement of the law. Those same principles are at work today.

So it is a good time to look at the history, and to understand why the Reagan reform didn’t work. The 1986 law was supposed to put a stop to illegal immigration once and for all. But since that time, the illegal immigrant population has more than doubled, from 5 million to more than 11 million.

We need to do better. The central purpose of this reform is to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows so they can live with dignity and security, and contribute freely to the nation’s economy and culture. If the result is that one shadow population is replaced by another, even larger, then we will have achieved little. So how can we do better this time around?

Start with border security. In the past decade, the United States has spent roughly $90 billion to secure the border with Mexico, according to an estimate done by the Associated Press. We have built fences, installed electronic monitors and deployed an army of border control agents equipped with vehicles, guns and dogs.

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That has had an impact. A

study by the Government Accountability Office

last month examined the region around Tucson, Ariz., and found that 87 percent of those who attempted to cross the border were captured, up from 67 percent in 2006. Overall, eight of nine sectors along the Mexican border showed higher rates of apprehension.

But border enforcement won’t be enough. It is impossible to hermetically seal off a nation as vast as the United States. And even if it could be done, it would not stop the flow of illegal immigrants. Nearly half of them enter the country legally on a visa, then stay in the United States beyond the expiration date. As we tighten enforcement at the borders, that path of entry will no doubt see even more traffic.

The real failure in the 1986 reform came when business lobbyists succeeded in softening the sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The final version required only that businesses make sure their workers had paperwork that “reasonably appears on its face to be genuine.”

Large-scale farmers, meanwhile, avoided the risk of sanctions by relying on subcontractors. So today, up to 80 percent of seasonal harvesting is done through contractors who rely heavily on illegal labor, according to the Washington Post's Wonkblog.

This time, the reform needs to establish an identification system that is more reliable than the E-Verify system in place today. And it needs to impose tough sanctions on employers who skirt the law. Modest fines that become a cost of doing business will not be enough.

The logic here is simple. The jobs are the magnets that draw illegal immigrants. If that remains a powerful lure, then even exhaustive efforts to plug every leak in the border are doomed to fail.

The most gratifying result of the 2012 election was the strong showing by Hispanic voters who overwhelmingly favored President Obama. It was a sobering moment for Republicans, who are showing new interest in immigration reform.

But as we seize this moment, let’s be sure to learn from history. Let’s get it right this time.

How they entered

Nearly half of the illegal immigrants living in America entered the country legally, then overstayed their visas.

Entered legally: 4.5 million to 6.0 million

Entered illegally: 6 million to 7 million

Total: More than 11 million

Source: Pew Hispanic Center, 2006



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