Border patrol is no future

She entered the country a little less than three years ago from County Sligo, Ireland.

The woman, now 28, came in legally, on a tourist visa, and stayed illegally. She overstayed her visa and is still overstaying it, working as a nanny outside Boston.

Now, like many of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants, she's hoping for a path to citizenship.

''I'd love to see the Kennedy-McCain bill pass," she said a few days ago. ''A path to citizenship would be great. I'd have no problem paying a fee for being here."

She didn't want to use her name out of fear of deportation. She didn't come here to beat a system. She came in search of a better life, as so many millions have, and believes she's found it. As she said, ''I love Boston."

While her parents have been to Boston to visit her, she said she fears traveling home to Ireland, worried that she would not be able to get back in.

But she certainly intends to stay in the United States. She said she pays her bills, pays taxes, and works full time.

''People who've never caused any trouble should be entitled to something," she said.

I also talked last week with an immigrant from Brazil named Cristina. The 23-year-old is studying political science at a community college, and working with immigration advocates. I was put in touch with both Cristina and the woman quoted above by the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Cristina said she had been here since the birth of her 5-year-old daughter. She wanted to be a nurse until she became active in the fight for in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. Now, she dreams of working some day for the United Nations.

''I came here for a better opportunity," she said. ''I work here, I pay taxes, and I've never applied for anything."

Passion about immigration is at a high pitch, on both sides. To many, allowing those who are in the country a shot at becoming citizens is a matter of basic fairness.

They are offset by a comparable conservative lobby that views the phrase ''illegal immigration" in much the way a bull sees a red flag.

President Bush -- right, for once -- has emerged as a champion of allowing immigrants who are already in the country to remain and to become citizens. It's not surprising that a former governor of Texas would see the folly in believing that the immigrant tide is somehow going to reverse itself.

Yesterday, Congress was still mired in conflict over what to do. At least 200 amendments to the Kennedy-McCain bill were pending, and the central idea, allowing people who are already here to become full-fledged Americans, seemed to be drawing more fire by the hour.

Even for a country that has never resolved its complicated feelings about immigrants, it is a strange debate. The fact is, what Bush and his allies want to do is not so much reform the system as create something we don't have now, a system that actually works.

The often-invoked cliché holds that America is a nation of immigrants. That's true enough, though I wouldn't describe my slave forbears as ''immigrants."

The point is, America doesn't really think of itself as a nation of immigrants. Forgetting the old country is a time-honored piece of assimilation.

This debate though, isn't about Americans versus Mexicans, or Haitians, or Brazilians. It is about the past versus the future.

Anyone who thinks a border patrol is the future, that immigration can be stopped by some drawbridge that someone can just pull up is dreaming.

Even if the anti-immigration forces were to win this round, the long-term prognosis for their position isn't favorable.

Just about everyone in America came from somewhere else, drawn by the freedom and opportunity we all claim to cherish.

There's no good reason to think that any bill could ever stop that.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.