Desert Invasion - U.S.

Border fence gaining fans in Mexico

By Ginger Thompson, The New York Times

May 25, 2006

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3861395

To build, or not to build, a border of walls? The debate in the United States has started some Mexicans thinking that it is not such a bad idea.

Nationalist outrage and accusations of hypocrisy over the prospect have filled airwaves and front pages in Mexico, as expected, fueled by presidential campaigns in which appeals to national pride are in no short supply.

But, surprisingly, another view is gaining traction: that good fences can make good neighbors....

Outside [Mexican President Fox's] government, several immigration experts have even begun floating the idea that real walls, not the porous ones that stand today, could be more of an opportunity than an attack.

A wall could dissuade undocumented [criminal illegal] immigrants from their perilous journeys across the Sonora Desert and force societies on both sides to confront their dependence on an industry characterized by exploitation, they say....

"For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy," said Jorge Santibanez, president of the College of the Northern Border. "And it has boasted about the growth in remittances as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure."...

If Mexicans were really shut inside their country, Rodriguez said, Mexico might be forced to get its own house in order.

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