If leaky pipes were flooding your basement, would you debate family members on a "comprehensive" plan to deal with all the water, even as the rising level threatened to overtake your first floor? Or would you first shut off the main water valve to minimize the cleanup and repairs? It's a no-brainer, isn't it?

Not if you're in Washington. If the leaky pipes represent the U.S.-Mexico border, and the water represents the more than 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, you insist on first reaching a compromise that allows the water to remain in your basement. You take your time patching some piping as water continues to pour from other gaping holes. And the main valve? Not even the slightest turn to the right is deemed acceptable.

Such is the state of the "comprehensive" immigration reform slogging through Congress.

On Tuesday, the Senate soundly rejected a proposal to secure the border before deciding the fate of the millions of illegal immigrants in the country today. That action came just one day after President Bush announced in a televised Oval Office speech that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border starting next month, but only in support roles of surveillance and logistics -- that's just three troops for every mile of the Mexican border, assuming they're on duty at all times. The outmanned U.S. Border Patrol will remain the only authority able to detain those caught crossing into the country illegally.

And what happens to those caught by the Border Patrol? The vast majority are released -- in the United States. Last month's raids on more than 40 wooden cargo pallet plants operated by IFCO systems resulted in about 1,200 immigration arrests, but less than 300 were deported immediately. The others were let go, trusted to show up for a future court date.

The president, to his credit, wants to end the catch-and-release practice. He wants captured border crossers detained and put on a fast track to deportation. But that proposal requires funding and legal authorization from Congress.

The House of Representatives would be happy to accommodate that request -- as long as the border is completely secure. What good will more troops, Border Patrol agents, jails and deportations do if those fleeing Latin American kleptocracies face no physical barriers on their way across the Mexican and American desert? They'll merely try to cross again and again.

Instead, the president and the Senate first want to create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States a few years. These politicians, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada among them, fantasize that millions of illegals who have found work with forged documentation, thrived in gray economies and been catered to with bilingual schools and public services will come forward, pay fines and back taxes and learn English, among other requirements, for a chance at a high-tech identification card and, eventually, citizenship. And the illegals who don't comply will simply want to go home, we're assured.

Make no mistake, "comprehensive" immigration reform is a fancy term for amnesty. And amnesty will have the effect of opening that main water valve even more, inviting more flooding into your hypothetical basement at an even faster rate.

If there is a solution for this nation's illegal immigration problem, it must start, not end, with a secure border.