HAVE MONEY, will immigrate. That's the message from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which began accepting checks for $1 million investments in U.S. firms Tuesday in return for visas for up to 10,000 wealthy foreigners. Come to the Land of Opportunity, the INS seems to be saying--but only with checkbook in hand.

The plan, originally passed by Congress in 1989 as part of a whole passle of new immigration rules, is both cynical and unfair--and Congress should overturn it.

Money, of course, is the big draw. Such programs have been financially successful in other nations. The Canadians, for instance, have made $15 billion (and created more than 40,000 jobs, according to The Washington Post) since their plan began in 1986. On the heels of a biting recession, such figures now look especially sweet.

But for any amount of money, the plan still sells out the American dream. Even as they provide up to 10,000 wealthy corporate types with guaranteed entrance, the INS shuts off those spots to potential immigrants without such deep pockets. These folks are shunted into the competitive and frustrating immigration lottery.

But as we were reminded at the celebration of the refurbished Ellis Island a year ago, the U.S. for more than three decades provided safe haven for 12 million of the world's middle and lower classes escaping from the urban degradation and ethnic oppression of 19th- and early 20th-century Europe. Only 2 percent of those trying to enter were rejected.

These working men and women were at least as essential to the creation of an economically dominant America as the wealthy foreign investors now clamoring for visas.

Worse still, as Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) pointed out during the 1989 Senate debate, the law doesn't require the INS to check the sources of the big ticket foreign investments. The cash could be from a sleazy bank (like BCCI). Or from a bunch of drug runners (like BCCI).

Finally, the plan will take unfair advantage of the fears of Hong Kong Chinese seeking new homes before Britain returns control of the city to China in 1997. Ditto for East Europeans fleeing the ethnic turmoil sparked by the death of communism.

For decades, as The Post recalled, the U.S. has beckoned the world's "starving, [its] poor, [its] huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Now it beckons its Guccis, its Rothschilds, its Mercedes, yearning for front-row Lakers tickets.

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CALIFORNIA GOV. Pete Wilson got scared last week. He saw long-held White House hopes wavering after rankling his conservative supporters just a bit too much in compromising on this year's budget. So he ran for cover.

Last Sunday, Wilson vetoed a California bill to add sexual orientation to the state's employment anti-discrimination laws. This would have meant that gays and lesbians, like other minorities, would be protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act.

No dice. The business community was pleased. Gay bashers got a kick out of it, too (although the governor insultingly made clear his anti-anti-homosexuality). Obviously, Wilson should change his mind.

The San Diego Republican, twice picked for the U.S Senate before defeating Dianne Feinstein for the governor's mansion last year, has always been the consummate politician. In his 1988 bid for the Senate, the hard working Wilson even won more votes in a single election than anyone in Congressional history.

In Washington, Wilson garnered a false reputation for being a moderate. (The National Journal even gave him a "liberal" rating on social issues.) Indeed, his talk would have made any Democrat proud. And Wilson did vote for a number of environmental measures, especially those preventing off-shore drilling. He even chattered about getting more money for child care and--believe it or not--AIDS research.