All that video footage of illegal immigrants streaming across the southern border is great television, but it’s a symptom that something is rotten with American border policy. As Congress returns for the fall, it’s time to do something, namely, pass reform along the lines of the McCain-Kennedy Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.

We wrote about the bill in June [“Calling Clinton and Schumer,” June 6], and it has only grown more necessary since then. McCain-Kennedy would more than double the total number of employment-based visas to 290,000 a year. It would allow up to 400,000 immigrants a year to enter the country as temporary guest workers for up to six years, during which time they could apply for green cards. And it would offer an amnesty program under which people already living here illegally could pay a fine and get their papers.

Keep those numbers in mind while considering the details of the latest hand-wringing at the border. On August 11, the governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, sent a pointed letter to the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, chastising Mr. Chertoff for not enforcing immigration laws aggressively enough. The next day, Governor Richardson of New Mexico declared a state of emergency in four border counties, a move Ms. Napolitano mimicked three days later. They will now each be able to spend $1.5 million on stepped-up border enforcement.

Meanwhile, on August 22, Mr. Chertoff replied to Mr. Napolitano’s letter by accepting Arizona’s offer to pay for an additional 200 detention beds, on top of the 2,000 beds the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau already maintains in the area. The 200 beds should make it possible to hold an extra 1,200 illegal immigrants each year before they are deported.

All of this effort will go to round up criminals who aren’t really criminals except for their desire to work in America. The current rules are so unreasonably restrictive that people who would otherwise try to enter legally are instead forced into a netherworld of nighttime border crossings and human traffickers. Because tight restrictions push so many immigrants to enter illegally, the current rules are a nightmare to enforce. The 1,200 illegals in those 200 beds in Arizona will be just a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly 400,000 people who successfully cross the border under the radar each year, or the 510,000 who have been caught trying in Arizona alone since October 1.

Rather than simply ramping up enforcement of the old laws, true immigration reform will mean crafting new laws based on three pillars, says the Manhattan Institute’s Tamar Jacoby. Reform should expand legal channels for immigration, enforce remaining restrictions to the letter, and offer a way to normalize the between 8 million and 12 million persons who are already here illegally. The McCain-Kennedy bill is particularly strong on the first and third pillars. A different bill, introduced by Senators Cornyn and Kyl, focuses on enforcement. This weekend, some details of President Bush’s own plan emerged in the press; for example, he would modify the amnesty in McCain-Kennedy by making it available only to illegal immigrants who arrived before February 2004. It seems likely that a compromise will emerge blending elements of all these proposals.

The frustration of Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Richardson, not to mention of their constituents, is understandable. Whatever they hope to accomplish in the short term, their new enforcement actions aren’t a long-term fix. They appear to recognize this. Both have endorsed some of the reforms that are included in McCain-Kennedy. Now it’s the turn of Congress to grapple with the problem.