Believe it or not, we can get somewhere helpful on immigration here in Washington.

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Yes, the rhetoric against conservatives is increasingly hotter from the Left and the pro-path-to-citizenship Republicans — we want nothing short of deportation. So, we're told, let’s stop the madness and “comprehensively” compromise.

Here’s a better plan, which Andy McCarthy alluded to yesterday: Do nothing with the 12-20 million illegals here now. That’s right, no Z-Visa, no mass deportation, no path to citizenship, no rounding up — nothing.

As Andy wrote, we’ve lived with the illegal population for quite some time now. Whence comes the exigency to do something now?

What we can and should do is encourage their attrition.

Few are against securing the border (or so they say). So secure it. Build the full fence and show some seriousness about protecting our country. And let’s stop the silly sound-bite that if you build a ten-foot fence the illegals will find an eleven-foot ladder. With enough border patrol, the ladders become irrelevant.

But, we can and should deport illegal persons piecemeal and over time as they, themselves, come out of the shadows — as of course they will whenever they have cause to show an i.d. to a government agency or employer; or if they show a fake i.d.; or if they are arrested for other crimes; or if they are merely pulled over for traffic violations.

At those points, let us show our ability to handle the law as it is now, which allows for the deportation of illegal aliens.

Earlier this year, Michelle Malkin pointed out that we have doubt enough with our task as it is, never mind absorbing 12 million (minimum) more illegal citizens and requiring their legal mainstreaming and processing. Among other things, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “had lost track of 111,000 files in 14 of the agency's busiest district offices and processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications last year without the required files.”)

We are being asked in the pending Senate legislation to adopt a whole series and set of laws, regulations, and procedures that depend on our — or the government’s — ability to actually effectuate those requirements that few have confidence we can effectuate rightly. How can we think of reforming something called Section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to solve our problems with absorbing 12 million illegal aliens when we have yet to solidify the southern border? That’s what irks about the long, Rube Goldbergian machinations of the proposed law. We can’t even make the current one work.

Let’s try the law as it is now, first — and prove our ability.

Let’s put illegal immigration on the course of ultimate extinction by tolerating no more furtherance, or rewarding, of it — but without taking any drastic measures either.

So, yes, don’t just do something, stand there. It’d prove a lot.

— Seth Leibsohn is a fellow of the Claremont Institute.