Border Fence
Not a solution for U.S.-Mexico woes
By Mary Sanchez

Think of the U.S.-Mexico border as a critical artery between two nations. Nowhere is the interdependence between Mexico and the United States more apparent. Nowhere does the love-hate relationship between the two lands find a better staging for squabbles. Nowhere else does the best and worst of each country crash together with such daily fury. So it is no surprise this 2,000-mile sliver of land draws so much attention as the U.S. begins halting steps toward immigration reform.

To listen to many people, every reform effort should begin solely at the U.S.-Mexico border. Problems there should be addressed, most certainly; violent drug runners threatening border agents, costs of healthcare for migrants that are overwhelming small municipalities and environmental concerns. And yet, the border alone cannot lead
the discussion now.

Congress should also ask questions about U.S. labor needs versus available visas for low-skilled workers to arrive legally. Congress should also focus terrorist fears on the northern border with Canada, which is more than twice as long. Congress should also realize that many efforts aimed at curbing illegal immigration have crippled the nation’s future economic strength by stifling the ability of high-tech workers, college students and researchers to enter the country legally. Instead, ramblings about “open borders” and calls to “seal the border” are rampant. Never mind such blather fails to acknowledge Mexico as the U.S.’s second largest trading partner after Canada; that the much-vilified border is where $235 billion in products crossed between Mexico and the U.S. in 2003. And that thousands of people cross back and forth daily to work, legally, on both sides of the border.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives has already passed the Border and Immigration Enforcement Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437). A tough-sounding heap of paperwork, the bill proposes, among many things, greatly expanding the fencing along the nation’s southern border. For $2.2 billion, the House ordered up about 700 miles of fencing. Considering that about 70 miles are already fenced, that leaves another 1,230 miles to go. Supporters argue this is a good start. Honest souls admit fencing is not a solution. Consider that some of the barricades used now are leftover landing pads from the Vietnam War, hardly a fortress. Strands of barbed wire are all that separate the U.S. from Mexico in many other spots. Now the U.S. Senate is up to bat.

With much luck and less political posturing, the Senate might come through with legislation that addresses needs at the border, but also looks to the interior of the nation as well. About 40 percent of the estimated 12-million-strong illegal population did not arrive smuggled as human cargo across the border. They came legally, their visa stamped and approved. Then, they never left. No amount of border fortification will fix this problem.

And regardless of what the House bill authorized, the nation’s law enforcement agencies do not want to be charged with rounding up illegal workers who have broken no other laws but the administrative one of arriving and working without the government’s okay. The biggest proverbial elephant in the room is jobs.

Do not expect illegal immigration to drop if nothing is done to either allow them a legal way to enter the country, or figure a way to fill the jobs they are taking with native-born labor. And most economists argue that there are simply too many low-skill level jobs for that to happen, no matter what employers are willing to pay. The border is simply where the workers must cross to answer the siren song of the U.S. employer.

Similarly, the border is as much home to the insatiable drug habits of the United States, as it is to the Mexican drug lords who send the goods. A famous saying in Mexico is a quote from former Mexican President Porfirio Díaz. “Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos– Poor Mexico, so far from God and so near the United States.” The saying loses its bravado today with Mexico virtually supported by money sent from nationals working in the U.S. The annual total was expected to reach $20 billion in 2005. But the United States is hardly a reluctant participant.

Perhaps it is time to quit blaming the border for each country’s troubles and admit that both sides are dually engaged in this most unavoidable of relationships. H

Mary Sanchez is a weekly columnist with Knight Ridder/Tribune, specializing in Latin American issues, trade, immigration, race, ethnicity and culture.

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