With both Republicans and Democrats demagoging the immigration issue leading up to the 2010 midterm election it is becoming more and more likely that Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) will again fail to get out of Congress.  

Fortunately there is a solution that can work for the Obama administration, has high potential to solve the "illegal Alien" issue and can serve the Democrats well in the election.  President Obama should begin immediately to negotiate a bilateral treaty on migration and border issues with President Calderon of Mexico.  READ MORE

Mexico has some immigration laws that are as onerous as those in the United States.  They do not allow foreigners to own property near the coast or the border.  No foreign national can own mineral rights.  An immigrant must register in the city where he resides and to become a Mexican citizen he must wait ten years and learn Spanish.  Illegal aliens in southern Mexico are not afforded even a bit of protection or any legal rights.

President Obama could talk publicly about the need for Mexico to have more humane immigration policies and to allow Americans more rights there.  He should then announce jointly with President Calderon of Mexico the start of a negotiation the objective of which will be a bilateral treaty to control migration between our two countries. 

The process was begun when Presidents Clinton and Salinas signed the NAFTA agreement in 1994.  Vicente Fox and George W Bush began the next step in 2001 when Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda visited Washington DC in early September 2001 and announced the framework of a planned treaty about the flow of people.  This all changed on September 11 when Al Qaida struck New York and the Pentagon and any progress foundered.

President Obama will gain many benefits from turning the hot button border and migration issues into a treaty negotiation.  First he can show his base, particularly the Latinos , that he is making progress on immigration. This will increase the chances that they will turn out to vote for his candidates this November.  Second he relieves pressure on swing democrats by taking CIR off the summer legislative calendar.  Third a treaty need only be ratified in the Senate where the likelihood of passage is much higher.  Fourth a well-crafted treaty with Mexico could actually solve the problem of undocumented people crossing our borders, promote economic growth and political stability in both nations and increase individual freedom. 

If the treaty contains a way for US farm interests to meet their labor needs and fair and equitable treatment of farm-workers many of the forty Senators from rural states can be counted on to support it.  The political benefit to Republicans would be that a treaty with Mexico could in the short run be spun as a neighborly solution that improves US citizen’s rights in Mexico reduces the border issues and increases our security.  In the long run Republican politicians know the demographic reality that by opposing immigrants they risk becoming a permanent minority party.

The United States congress cannot by legislative fiat stop the migration of Mexicans from farms and small town to big cities like Mexico City, Chicago and Los Angeles.  Walls haven’t worked.  But a treaty between our countries that recognizes the reality of our relationship as neighbors could be a way to break the impasse.  Migration between our countries doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  

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