http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... /-1/NEWS01

Mexico diverts its own economic problems north of the border
01/30/2006
Mexico has decided not to give out maps showing its citizens how to illegally enter the United States.

Its Human Rights Commission now fears that American border patrols will use the maps to track and scare off dehydrated immigrants as they rest at water stations along the way.

This decision is typical of the twisted thinking of Mexican leaders who seem to believe the solution to illegal immigration lies abroad.

The maps were drawn and posted in collaboration with Humane Borders, a U.S.-based organization that focuses on immigrant safety in a world of nefarious smugglers. It says American immigration policy is harmful to millions of poor and illegal immigrants fleeing "economic disaster" at home.

This lopsided thinking insists on dealing with only one part of a global problem. It's typical of the myopic view of similar aid groups, who wonder why so many Americans don't get it.

One reason may be last week's discovery of the largest tunnel running into California from across the border. The sophisticated, 1,200-yard labyrinth came complete with electricity and systems to pump water and control ventilation. It also had a 2-ton stash of marijuana.

Illegal immigration is layered with complications that no longer allow it to be defined solely by images of dying, dehydrated and frightened would-be American workers.

Immigration maps are an appalling act of scapegoating by a country that refuses to focus on its own economic problems that inspire so many of its people to see illegal border crossing as a run for the Promised Land.