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Editorial: Contribute to debate, but can the chutzpah

Web Posted: 01/22/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

A traditional definition of the Yiddish word "chutzpah" is a child who murders his parents then begs for mercy because he's an orphan.

Diplomats from Mexico and Central America recently provided another definition when they criticized efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and demanded that the United States establish guest worker programs and a process for the legalization of undocumented immigrants.

Deplorable social and economic conditions in their nations propel thousands of citizens to migrate northward and seek jobs and better lives in the United States. Many of those migrants enter this country illegally.

South Texans understand the economic force that draws these migrants. They benefit from having a large pool of cheap, unskilled labor. So do the immigrants' home countries, to which much of the money they earn is repatriated. In 2004, Mexico alone received $16 billion in remittances from its citizens working in the United States.

Enforcement alone won't solve the problem of illegal immigration. A bill passed by the House of Representatives that would make illegal entry a felony and erect 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border certainly isn't the silver bullet. Immigration policy must also take into account the economic realities of the U.S. relationship with its Latin American neighbors.

But those neighbors are far off the mark in criticizing the United States for not accepting more of their citizens to alleviate their internal woes.

Moreover, Mexico's Human Rights Commission recently condemned its own government for the way it treats illegal immigrants from Central America.

"One of the saddest national failings on immigration issues," the president of the commission said at a news conference, "is the contradiction in demanding that the North respect migrants' rights, which we are not capable of guaranteeing in the South."

The proposals for dealing with the immigration problem in the United States certainly need improvement. And U.S. policy-makers should welcome constructive comments from Mexican and Central American leaders.

The best way those leaders can contribute to a resolution of that problem is to improve conditions in their own countries.