US/Mexico: love thy neighbour

This week, US National Guard troops come to the end of "Operation Jump Start," a two-year deployment on the Mexico border widely credited with helping border police stanch the flow of illegal crossers. Arrests along the border fell to under 880,000 last year, from almost 1.2 million the year before the operation started.

Barbed wire, Alsatian dogs and muscle have certainly played their part in reducing illegal immigration. US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, who last week made appearances before the League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac), both promise comprehensive immigration reform, and advocate strong border control. Yet these measures may not create a sense of community and build a common approach to continental problems.

Can building bridges, rather than walls, help solve illegal immigration? Robert Pastor, writing in Foreign Affairs, believes that any new US administration should put its money where its mouth is, and establish a North American investment fund to narrow the income gap between Mexico and its richer northern neighbours. In his essay, The Future of North America, he suggests that a fund would have a greater effect on undocumented immigration to the United States than immigration reform.

Pastor's idea is backed up by some raw maths: he estimates that $20 billion per year would connect central and southern Mexico to the United States with roads, ports, and communications. He writes that as Mexico stands to be the greatest beneficiary, it should consider contributing half of the money for the fund and also undertake reforms -- fiscal, energy, and labour -- to ensure that the resources would be effectively used. The United States would contribute 40% of the fund's resources per year -- less than half the weekly cost of the war in Iraq -- and Canada, 10%.

His logic is based on the positive effects of NAFTA, which has enabled the northern part of Mexico to grow 'ten times as fast' as the southern part because it is connected to Canadian and US markets. "North America can wait a hundred years for southern Mexico to catch up, or it can help accelerate its development -- which would have positive consequences in terms of reducing emigration, expanding trade, and investing in infrastructure to help Mexico enter the developed world," he adds.