While Congress grapples unsuccessfully with comprehensive immigration reform — which took another hit last week when the Senate took a walk on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act — federal law enforcement authorities are convinced that none of the Department of Homeland Security agencies responsible for managing the moving the pieces of any such bill will be able to handle the surge.

As far as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goes, the agency currently has so many worksite enforcement leads that it would take several years to get through those without all the new cases and reporting requirements, that would be generated by any new legislation. Several veteran ICE supervisors and field agents asked, "What will happen to all the day laborers since they don't have full time jobs? They shouldn't be eligible for a visa? Do they think that they will leave the country?"

Currently, they said, the laws are in place to turn off the work magnet, but the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) aren't engaged as they could be due to restrictions. If they were to assist, they said, it would make it extremely difficult for employers to hire and keep illegal aliens employed.

The system now in place at U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (CIS) to identify benefit fraud, they said, is completely overwhelmed — with thousands of leads and cases that can't be worked to due lack of personnel and antiquated tracking systems. The supervisors and agents agreed that that the fraud associated with comprehensive immigration reform — as being debated — will be 10 times worse that the 1986 Amnesty and Citizenship USA, which saw an influx of more than 3 million illegal aliens.

One longtime ICE supervisor said the document vendors will become rich producing rent receipts, pay stubs and other phony papers to show that an alien has been here prior to Jan 1, 2007. "They no doubt have already started," the supervisor said.

The veteran supervisors and agents said ICE is currently looking at companies that have multiple offices around the country so they can make a "big splash for the media to give the impression that we are really doing something." But, they asked, who will do the background checks for all these aliens and how accurate will they be? They said it will be impossible to hire enough agents or personnel for ICE and CIS, let alone the U.S. Border Patrol, to manage the changes.

-- Jerry Seper, national reporter, The Washington Times