A Safer, Saner Border

As long as an hour’s work in the United States pays more than a day’s work in Mexico, neither fences or mass deaths in the desert will stop poor people from heading north. Soon President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox will announce a comprehensive plan to deal with immigration. Meanwhile, officials in Washington and Mexico City have agreed on much-needed policy improvements to make it less likely that Mexicans crossing illegally into the United States will die in the effort.

Would-be border crossers routinely pelt U.S. Border Patrol agents with rocks. Sometimes the agents fire back, with tragic results: They killed three Mexicans in 1999. The greater danger to border crossers, however, is nature and the smugglers who too often leave them at its mercy. Last month 14 migrants were found dead in the Arizona desert. Since October, 17 people have drowned trying to cross the All-American Canal in Imperial County.

The new pact includes a pilot program in which Border Patrol agents will experiment with blasting assailants with pressurized pepper spray rather than lethal sidearms. It will reinforce search-and-rescue operations, sending more personnel out on foot and flying over desert areas to find lost border crossers. And Mexico will strengthen its campaign to warn would-be migrants of the danger in the endeavor. Finally, both nations promise to crack down on smugglers.

These small moves offer hope that the countries’ big plan will be a smart one. Come September, when Fox and Bush meet in Washington, teams working under the guidance of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jorge Castaneda and Secretary of the Interior Santiago Creel will produce an agreement that could be presented to the two countries’ congresses. Most likely it will include an increased visa quota for Mexican immigrants and an agreement on a temporary guest worker program. It may also seek accommodation--from full permanent legalization to temporary legal status--for some of the millions of migrants already in the U.S. Finally, it will call for a joint binational program to invest in those parts of Mexico that send the most immigrants scrambling north.

That would slow illegal immigration. Until then, the nations showed wisdom and compassion in moving to keep people from dying as they seek to earn a living.