It’s going to be quite a week for immigration reform in Washington. The House will take up an enforcement-only bill on Thursday that will leave essentially unresolved the fate of the 11 million immigrants currently living – and working – here illegally. Meantime, like mosquitoes to a bug lamp, bad amendments seem to be gravitating to this piece of legislation, proving that no matter how misguided a bill might seem, one can always find one or two – or more than 90 – congressmen who would like to make it worse.

The bill, known as the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, combines elements of a raft of enforcement bills introduced over the past year. It foists onto employers the obligation to check the eligibility of employees to work in America. It mandates that the government detain all immigrants caught crossing the border illegally. The list of enforcement provisions goes on and on.

Absent is any clear indication of what the bill’s sponsors propose to do with those illegal immigrants who are already here. There is no provision to regularize their status. Deporting all of them would be impossible, and relying on other enforcement provisions alone to solve the problem would be a mistake. The Sun’s Daniela Gerson reported last week on a booming open-air market for fake documents here in New York City. As notable as its existence was the fact that it was up and running again just days after law enforcement raided it. Unless newcomers have opportunities to come and stay legally, otherwise law-abiding immigrants will always find ways to stay here in the shadows.

So right out the gate the bill is “deeply disappointing,” in the words of a Manhattan Institute expert on immigration, Tamar Jacoby. But a group of Republicans seems bound and determined to make it even worse. The leader of the 92-member immigration reform caucus, Rep. Tom Tancredo, has stated that he and his colleagues plan to offer about 30 amendments to the bill. These range from the frightening (a proposal to militarize the borders) to the laughable (suspending the visa waiver program that eases entry for thousands of first-world businessmen and tourists every day) to the downright weird.

In the weird category count a proposal advanced by Rep. Nathan Deal of Georgia to end birthright citizenship, which confers American citizenship on anyone born within our borders no matter who are the baby’s parents. Mr. Deal hopes to offer the legislation as an amendment to the broader bill. Proponents of the idea argue that, as Mr. Deal told us yesterday, “birthright citizenship is a magnet issue attracting people to come here illegally, like jobs.” He suggests that the parents of the 100,000 to 350,000 babies born each year to illegal immigrants have those children so that when they turn 18 they can sponsor their parents for citizenship.

In the view of Mr. Deal and his allies, the traditional interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment as providing for birthright citizenship is incorrect, meaning that Congress can in fact elect to change the law. As adherents of the plain language school of constitutional law, we would look forward to the ensuing court challenge if this amendment passes into law. To comprehend the danger of Mr. Deal’s deal, look no further than France, where the still-smoldering suburbs illuminate catastrophe of a permanent underclass of unassimilated youths. Eschewing birthright citizenship did not help Germany an iota in its struggle to cope with its population of Turkish guest workers.

The good news is that such amendments may yet still die on the legislative cutting room floor. They must first clear the Rules Committee on Wednesday, and, although two members of the immigration reform caucus sit on that committee, it’s unlikely that all these proposals will make it to a floor vote. Even if some do, pro-growth Republicans and sensible Democrats will be able to defeat the offending provisions. Many expect the immigration bill as a whole to pass the House, if not the Senate, and that’s bad news. We’d be better off if the House went back to the drawing board and came back with a bill to address the realities of immigration in America.