Informed statisticians inside the government and out calculate that, at a minimum, about 40 percent of those living in our country without permission initially entered legally through land, sea and air ports of entry and then simply overstayed their periods of authorized admission, melting into the interior and working illegally, often by assuming the identities and using the critical data (such as Social Security numbers) of citizens and lawful residents. In other words, nearly half of the illegal-alien population consists of individuals who abused our visa and visa-waiver systems. The phenomenon has risen to a crisis level.

This is why I find it odd — anachronistic in the extreme — that the tipping point for the Senate, in its embarrassing rush to pass an immigration reform bill, any immigration reform bill no matter how flawed, was a last-minute amendment providing for a "surge" of Border Patrol agents on the southern land border. Visa security was given short shrift. In fact, the only provision in the amendment that appeared to acknowledge the makeup of today's illegal-alien population was sadly laughable: Section 1201 ("Removal of Nonimmigrants Who Overstay Their Visas") directed the Homeland Security Secretary within 180 days to "initiate removal proceedings [or] confirm that immigration relief or protection has been granted or is pending, or otherwise close 90 percent of the cases of aliens who were admitted to the United States and then overstayed their visas in the 12 months following enactment" (emphasis added).

Well. There you have it. The Senate's solution is foolproof: Can't find all those pesky overstayed aliens, who may or may not be criminals or national security threats, and arrest them so you can initiate proceedings? Easy-peasy. Close their cases! Lotsa cases, lotsa problems; a few cases, a few problems; no cases, no problems.

In stark but pleasing contrast to puerile solutions, the House of Representatives has pending before it an immigration bill, H.R.2278, the "Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act", which recognizes the dimensions of the problem and provides real solutions that truly will "strengthen and fortify" the integrity of the current visa-issuing process and in so doing, help to keep our country safe. In fact, Title IV of the bill is entirely about Visa Security.

Here are a few highlights:

As can be seen by this brief outline, the various sections of this title:
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