TRACY THIBODEAUX

Our Mexican border policy is organized chaos. If that strikes you as a contradiction, you are uninformed.

Immigration policy enforcement does exactly what it is designed to do: Be a pretense, as if we were trying to keep out illegal immigrants. The policy is a political charade, nothing more.

There is really no intent to enforce immigration laws with regard to Mexico, because that would conflict with the interests of the corporations that profit from employing illegal immigrants, who have no bargaining power.

These individuals are paid substandard wages, and employers save even more by not having to pay for FICA and the many other expenses involved in legitimate employment of a citizen.

This, of course, suppresses the wages of North American workers. If the powers that be were serious, they would enforce the law against these employers. But no attempt is made to do so.

Living near the border, about 20 miles from Douglas, I have much experience in watching how the Border Patrol works. It is almost comical.

Until about a year ago, checkpoints were on all major arteries leading away from the border.

Then controversy arose about the vigilantes in Tombstone who threatened their own enforcement because of the way the desert was trashed where the illegal immigrants walked through.

Mexicans were being dropped off just south of the checkpoint at Tombstone and would proceed on foot around it. The officers there knew it, but I never saw them try to apprehend anyone, though they no doubt did on occasion.

I saw it from both sides. When I ran my dogs in the wash, I would encounter 20 or more illegal immigrants walking in a column. I did not confront them; it was not my place to do so. I did report a sighting at least once to the checkpoint personnel, but they showed no interest.

This particular political problem has been solved because congressman Jim Kolbe ordered the checkpoints removed.

Now when someone gets across the border, it is wide open, if they have transportation. The Border Patrol can only resort to parking beside the road and tailgating vehicles that look suspicious, i.e., any van or SUV.

I once asked Mr. Kolbe why he did this, and he said he had not removed the checkpoints, only moved them. If so, where are they?

Kolbe has recommended a guest worker program, but I wonder how serious any of our elected officials are about that effort.

Some U.S. workers might resent such a program, but it could only help the situation.

A guest worker program would require minimum standards of treatment and pay for immigrants, who will come here anyway. It also would mean less immigration of families as a whole.

Back in the '50s and '60s, the braceros program allowed men to cross over and work for a time, providing support for their families in Mexico.

Most of these people, believe it or not, would rather live in Mexico. Our current policy makes it very difficult for them to leave their families behind. If they went to visit them in Mexico, they might not succeed in getting back into the United States again.

In other words, our "tough" border enforcement actually is causing the immigration of more people. That means more unnecessary and very tragic deaths in the desert, not to mention the medical care for those injured or suffering exposure in attempts at passage.

Very few of these people are what you could define as criminals. They are impoverished and moving north out of desperation.

In large part, their plight is the result of our trade policies, wherein we subsidize our farmers, making it impossible for indigenous peoples to sell their crops.

Why do you think there is so much anger over the World Trade Organization? "Free trade" does not provide better for all people. It exploits poorer countries and subjugates workers at the home front. If our relationship with Mexico were similar to that we have with Canada, Mexico could prosper.

Yes, you can cite the "corruption" in Mexico, but our policymakers continually have shown an affinity for leaders who are not always honest and therefore can be managed because they need our support to retain power.

Do you ever hear the big boys here complaining about "corruption" in Mexico? No.The corporate hand fits very nicely in the Mexican glove of "corruption." We have corruption here, we just make it legal.

If there were actually an interest and concern about middle Americans and the Mexican people as a whole, the measure of success would be the living standards for all instead of corporate profits exclusively.

The purpose of NAFTA was never to make Mexico more like the United States, but quite the opposite. And it is working.

While these games are played along the Mexican border, we are being made more vulnerable to attack via terrorism. There have been many reports of Middle Eastern men crossing while disguised as Mexicans.

With a coherent policy, wherein crossings would be made through the ports by those who would work here, law enforcement would have an easier time finding people more apt to cross the desert or jump the fence.

We are being overwhelmed by trying to apprehend those who are our neighbors and are simply looking for work.

Any system has a breaking point. Pride and flag-waving are no substitute for the concern for others that holds a society together. This also includes the good people south of our border, a border that was imposed after we invaded and took half of what once was Mexico.

Tracy Thibodeaux, a building inspector, lives outside of Douglas near the Arizona-Mexico border.