I am not happy about the inconsistent, unfair patchwork of immigration laws in our country. I am troubled that some American employers condone illegal immigration because it yields them a source of cheap, unprotected labor. And I am well aware of the ripple social effects of a pool of undocumented residents numbering more than 11 million, not the least of which is weakened public confidence in the durability of the rule of law.

For all of these reasons, I support and have sponsored bills that would multiply our forces on the Mexican border and that would stiffen punishments on companies that smuggle or knowingly employ illegal aliens. But I appreciate that given the sheer size of the undocumented population and given its mobility and capacity to thrive underground, that none of these measures would make a real dent in the presence of residents without legal status.

I do not think the immigration reform legislation passed by the House will do much better. This legislation (which, by the way, is not even on the long- range docket in the Senate) does streamline the path for deportation and it strengthens the process for verifying the I-9s we all fill out when we start a new job, but let's not forget that employing illegal aliens is already a crime and that harboring and assisting illegal aliens is already enough to trigger a fine or even send a violator to jail.

The net effect is that the ranks of the illegal and the undocumented will not dramatically shrink. At best, we will feel tougher, and we will turn some immigrants who are working and sustaining families into criminals bound for deportation. The new outburst of laws would not turn an unmanageable problem into a solved one.

That is one reason I could not vote for the bill my Alabama colleagues supported - we should not mislead our constituents into thinking we have accomplished a result when we know better. I also have another reason for voting no. I do not deny the humanity of men and women who come here because dollar-a-day wages at home don't consistently put food on the table or clean clothing on their backs. While the exact numbers are of course unknowable, a good share of these individuals are working and living peacefully and, under our laws, the children they give birth to are our citizens.

I would give these immigrants a second chance to become guest workers and to apply for eventual citizenship. I would give them a time frame to come aboveground and register or risk immediate deportation if they stay in the shadows and get caught; I would make them pay back unpaid taxes. I would permit employers to accept guest workers only when they certify by affidavit that there is no pool of readily available American workers for a given position. Finally, this guest worker program would be available only for immigrants who have no existing felony record and who have been gainfully employed; the commission of a crime or failure to maintain employment would subject the undocumented to fast-track deportation.

There are some on my left who would oppose the policies I describe as too punitive and too riddled with reasons for deportation: I think they fail to appreciate that our citizens need to see more toughness and more standards in our immigration laws before they can be persuaded to adopt a little compassion.

Of course, there are others on my right who dismiss anything short of deportation as rewarding the breaking of our immigration laws. I wish they would remember that almost every generation of previous immigrants came here in a manner that would violate our laws of today: A century and a half ago, Ellis Island opened its gates to any immigrant who could read and write in his own language and who tested negative for communicable diseases. The modern matrix of immigration laws is a phenomenon largely of the past 50 years, and it reflects poorly on our values that it coincided with the emergence of an immigrant influx that was non-European in nature.

Finally, most of us believe that the tide of, among others, Germans and Italians and Irish only strengthened us as a country, and we would do well to remember their example as we debate our immigration policy. U.S. Rep. Artur Davis represents Alabama's Seventh District. Contact him through his Web site: www.house.gov/arturdavis.