The chronic debate on what to do about illegal immigration is about to get going in Washington, reports the New York Times. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Spector has proposed legislation providing for a guest-worker program.

The proposal is that industries such as restaurants and agriculture recruit workers abroad and bring them into the country on guest-worker visas. The rationale is that such visas would provide a legal path for industry needing foreign workers and foreign workers needing work.

The 800-pound gorilla that the bill ignores is what to do about the 11 million illegals immigrants already here. The president's proposals for some kind of amnesty, although he won't use that word, have been dead for a long time because a strong part of his own party will not abide any kind of legalization process.

It's two decades since the last serious attempt to grapple with this problem. Those reforms were more realistic in that they provided amnesty for those who were working and otherwise had a clean record. The migration of illegals never stopped because there was work they could do and no serious effort was ever made to enforce the sanctions on employers. Business-oriented Republicans stymied enforcement when they were in charge and Democrats have never had much stomach for driving illegals out of the country but they will not take a strong stand in their behalf.

Spector's bill is a start in trying to get the debate moved beyond gridlock although it's hard to see much coming from it when the economy still needs unskilled labor and neither side can muster strong support for a solution. Makes me think that the status quo suits the majority of people.