Last week's collapse of the Senate's "grand bargain" on American immigration was not, as one might think, a case of pragmatic centrism defeated by extremist refusal to compromise. To be sure, the measure mixed punitive and liberal elements, so anti-immigrant and pro-immigrant lobbies both disliked it. But moderates were not much more impressed, nor was the country at large. Even the bill's main sponsors - Senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain - seemed doubtful. It was a compromise that offended almost everybody.

The law may yet be revived but do not bet on it. The status quo is bad but not intolerable: "better no reform than this reform" is something many of the law's critics could agree to. The US has at least 12m illegal immigrants and the number continues to surge. At the same time critical skills are in short supply, a deficit that employers are in effect forbidden to remedy by recruiting abroad. In social and econ-omic terms, the current system has failed. But the problems are chronic not acute and sadly theline of least resistance is to let things be.