The presence of 11 million illegal immigrants living in America alone wasn't enough to get the government's attention. It took 500,000 protesters, both legal and illegal, in Los Angeles and large demonstrations around the country to do that. Congress's failure to pass two separate versions of immigration reform shows that it, and President Bush, neither understand nor want to fix the immigration crisis in this country. The government faces a choice between getting too stringent and fencing in America's future, or solving the problem economically and accepting the forces of globalization that will tell Washington immigration is good for America. Forget about the fight over the Latino vote - it's the eleventh hour, and Congress has fallen asleep at the wheel.

Bush's plan has the right amount of toughness that the McCain-Kennedy bill lacks, calling for a welcoming but lawful society. The president went a step further than the McCain bill and made the right decision to call for enforcing laws against businesses that hire illegal workers. The White House knows that some owners are fattening their pockets from hiring illegal workers - at the cost of low-income Americans losing out on work.

The president's conviction to overhaul the U.S. Border Patrol would no doubt help slow the number of immigrants flooding across the border - now up to half a million people per year.

Increased resources for the Border Patrol, such as military drones and helicopters, would be a wise move to compensate for the lax security along the border. Putting more human resources on the ground is much more effective than the 700-mile long wall that the Sensenbrenner Bill, which already passed in the House, proposed. Bush could even follow the example of the Minutemen Project, the group begun in 2005 to watch a 27-mile stretch of the Arizona border, and privatize border-watching to free up more funds for said drones and helicopters (the Border Patrol currently has 53 helicopters at its disposal - four times more than are being used to aid the Darfur region in Sudan, according to The Economist magazine). 2,000 miles of border is just too much for one agency to handle.

Though the McCain-Kennedy bill had elements of the right approach, the bill's guest-worker provision is the wrong method to provide immigrants a path to citizenship. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has gone on record claiming that the program is not amnesty for 11 million people, but a way for immigrants to slowly become legal citizens of this country.

The plan, however, could prove highly expensive and porous. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can only issue so many visas and green cards, so Congress would have to set a ceiling on the number of visas given out yearly. The New Republic called the guest-worker program "un-American." Why? Apparently because it rewards immigrants for obtaining work illegally and squeezing out blue-collar jobs for Americans.

The McCain plan is right, though, in setting a restriction on how long immigrants can stay and work here. After about six to eight years, some would be required to return home before applying for citizenship.

Both bills' end goals have the right means to an end: Reducing the number of illegal workers in the country and offering citizenship to many of those who are able to stay their is an effective safeguard for one thing - keeping the market balanced. If 11 million illegal immigrants were suddenly paid equal wages, businesses would cut and run from our shores so fast the American economy would tank. There just are not enough low-end jobs for all of them.

America has entered a "Talent Age," according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. As he says, economic success in this world has to be measured in latitudes, not in longitudes. America can take advantage of its immigration heritage to stimulate the economy. In a competitive market, the United States can leap ahead of everyone else should the government decide to allow moderate legal immigration. If the talent is on our shores, the businesses will follow the talent, not the tax breaks. The United States cannot squander such an opportunity at its doorstep.

As Mexican President Vicente Fox said to Bush: "The ball's in your court." Bush kicked that ball over to Capitol Hill - he has done his part. Now it's up to Congress to send something to the Oval Office that, with the president's signature, will effectively break down the fence and welcome back the huddled (Latino) masses.

Bunkley is a LSA sophomore and a member of the Daily's editorial board.