Does Bill O’Reilly know any illegal immigrants? Does Mark Levine? Does Sean Hannity? If they do, will they report them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement? After all, according to these conservative analysts, illegals have not respected the rule of law and we must not reward lawbreakers by granting them amnesty. Although I usually have deep respect for their opinions, these pundits have become as dogmatic as CNN’s Lou Dobbs on this issue. If all those who disrespected the rule of law were actually punished, President Clinton would never have landed that multimillion-dollar book deal.

An Irish friend of mine, who happens to be in law enforcement, told me that his great-grandfather had jumped ship in New York Harbor and swam to shore. He and probably thousands of other immigrants landed here illegally in search of the American dream, and their progeny are reaping the benefits of their escape from poverty in their homelands. Yet I know of Europeans who land jobs here on visiting visas and then secure green cards with no problem. Some conservatives wonder why Hispanics are pushing ahead of those waiting on line to get into the country legally. Maybe that’s because there is no line for them.

The immigration crisis is an extremely complex issue involving human lives. Most illegal immigrants would never take part in the protests that are being staged in California and Arizona. They’re too busy working hard for their families the way immigrants have done since this country was founded.

Why hasn’t there been any kind of in-depth study about these political protesters? Who organizes them? Who pays for transportation? Who makes the signs and buys the flags? Ordinary people do not participate in angry rallies and protests, so I can’t help but suspect that professional agitators are behind this. That’s why we’re hearing political rants about “La Reconquista,” taking back America for the Mexicans. But the majority of Mexicans and Central Americans here are churchgoers, not atheistic left-wing Marxists.

Anyone wondering why California is a hotbed of multicultural anarchists should read David Schippers’s book “Sellout,” which charges that Vice President Gore led the operation to subvert the 1996 election through the Citizen USA program. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants were hastily naturalized in time to vote. At least 60,000 had criminal records, and I wonder how many of them were waving banners in Los Angeles last week.

Most non-Hispanic Americans have their image of the illegal immigrant filtered through negative news reports or television. The ones that actually serve and work around them remain invisible. When they read of an illegal immigrant getting arrested for rape, murder, or any crime, negative impressions are reinforced. A stereotype is born, and a crisis is fueled and stoked by those offering no viable solution.

Let’s pretend this hoopla is about preventing terrorism, not xenophobia. Our borders should be secured against terrorists, but let’s also remember that the September 11 murderers did not come here that way. They had visas and plenty of cash to spend at flying schools and one-way first-class airline tickets. What efforts have been made to track down students with visas from countries that sponsor terrorism? What’s wrong with racial profiling if it saves lives?

The proposed legislation is a mixed bag with some long-delayed reforms. But making undocumented presence here a felony is a mistake unless an individual is actually committing a felonious crime. The reality is that any immigration crackdown will probably be targeting the dark-skinned Hispanics rather than the blue-eyed Eastern Europeans or wealthy Arabs who also have circumvented our immigration laws.

Legislation should concentrate on sealing the borders immediately rather than determining what should be done with the 12 million illegal immigrants already here. Like it or not, they’re here and we should not forget our own responsibility when states like California held out the carrot of welfare, education, and health care to an impoverished people. The underclass has little chance of sharing in the bounty of a post-Nafta Mexico that it regards as elitist, racist and corrupt. Mexico’s president, Vicente Fox, has displayed no interest in improving the lives of his darker-skinned countrymen.

Let’s concentrate instead on keeping that number at 12 million. Build a solid wall for deterrence and in the meantime use high-tech surveillance and beefed-up border patrols until it’s in place. By all means, offer guest worker status to those already here so they can be documented and monitored.

And while we’re at it, let’s also remove that bronze plaque from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty that contains the no-longer-valid invitation to the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Replace it with a neon “no vacancy” sign.