Just how gullible does the Biden administration think Americans are? Here’s how gullible: It wants the rest of us to believe that it is solving the problem of illegal immigration by simply making it legal and ramping up the number of people it can process at the border. Presto. Problem solved. No more pictures of groups of grim Venezuelans bum-rushing Border Patrol officers at El Paso.

To say this is disingenuous is being polite. President Biden is simply letting in many of those who might have joined those gangs or tried to sneak in. In a triage of sorts, those who apply and make an appointment via a cellphone app are interviewed briefly then handed a piece of paper telling them to appear in immigration court months — or years — down the road.

The newcomers are then passed off to any of a number of charity or church groups operating on the border, some of whom receive taxpayer funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These groups help them get to their final destination with a hot meal and a bus ticket. Next stop, New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia, regardless of whether those cities are ready for them or need them.

Not, just to mark the point, that the Sun is hostile to immigration. On the contrary, we’re long time supporters of robust immigration. We like the idea of human capital. As last week’s blockbuster job numbers attest, America needs help. As in much of the developed world, our birth rate has plunged to multi-decade lows and below replacement level. Employers — as well as our social security system — need young earners, and inbound migration is a great option.

Widening the pathways to legal migration of industrious strivers from the southern half of the Americas — as well as nascent democracies, such as India — is the best and easiest way to solve America’s labor shortage. As the Manhattan Institute’s Daniel DiMartino has noted, the right course for government policy is to  make it easier, not harder, for American employers to look to immigrants for employees.

Republicans want to hear none of this, however. During the Trump years, most Republicans in Congress voted for the biggest cut in legal immigration since the 1920s. We’re all for enforcing the law against illegal entry. We don’t see any logic whatsoever to reducing legal entry. The emergence of xenophobia is a tragedy for the right and for America itself, just when we need an expanding population so that supply-side growth can be spurred.

Where Mr. Biden’s current plan falls apart is in permitting anyone with even the flimsiest claim for political asylum to be allowed to enter. A better policy would be an expansion of what this administration has done for citizens of Cuba and Venezuela. A certain number of persons who are from those countries and have sponsors in the States and a clean criminal record are allowed to resettle in America.

The program has been successful; there are now fewer Cubans and Venezuelans showing up at the border, as Mr. DiMartino notes. Vetting more people in their home countries — and selecting prospective emigrants based on their education, assets, age, and other demographic factors — would end the cartel’s dominance of our border, free up the Border Patrol from babysitting refugees, and allow America to enrich our labor market. Allowing more legal pathways via a streamlined and measured process is the best course.