Immigration activist suspects Border Patrol will try to erect border wall in small steps if unwatched.

                 CLAUDINE LoMONACO
 
                    The U.S. Border Patrol has backed off a plan to build a wall that would
                 block off three-quarters of Arizona's border, but an immigration rights activist
                 isn't celebrating.
                    "We cannot look at this as a victory, because if we turn away, they'll do it
                 incrementally, in small steps, so we don't notice," said Isabel Garcia, a Tucson
                 immigration attorney and human rights activist.
                    Garcia is part of a coalition of human rights and environmental activists who
                 waged a vocal campaign to stop the wall's construction.
                    She spoke during a news conference organized by the human rights
                 organization Derechos Humanos to commemorate the ratification of the U.N.
                 Migrant Rights Convention. Signed by 22 countries, including Mexico and
                 Guatemala, the convention went into effect yesterday and aims to protect rights
                 of migrants and their families.
                    The United States was not a signatory.
                    Garcia lauded the international community's support of immigrant rights but
                 criticized the United States for moving in the opposite direction.
                    Instead of expanding rights, she said, the United States has opted to deal
                 with immigration as a law enforcement issue.
                    "And it's failed," she said.
                    The crackdown on the border since the mid-'90s has done nothing to deter
                 people from crossing the border illegally, but it has led more people to die
                 trying, she said.
                    Speakers at the conference called for a complete overhaul of U.S. border
                 policy, including renegotiating NAFTA and establishing a guest-worker
                 program that guarantees workers rights.
                    "Our economy depends on migrant workers," said Garcia. "If we kicked
                 out all the undocumented workers, in one day the country's economy would
                 collapse."