Two crises have deepened America’s anxieties over immigration since Congress tried to reform the law two years ago: the global recession and an outburst of murder and mayhem in northern Mexico. The recession has aroused antipathy for foreigners who compete for jobs. The violence along the border, which stems from a high-stakes campaign by Mexican president Felipe Calderón to bust apart several large drug cartels, has inflamed fears that our borders aren’t secure.
Americans differ on what to do about illegal immigration, but most agree that the root of the problem is Mexico’s failure to provide adequately for its own people. Mexicans differ on how to create a more prosperous, democratic nation, but most are eager to improve the status of their countrymen living illegally in the United States. These attitudes suggest the contours of a grand bargain that both peoples might be persuaded to accept: immigration reforms that help Mexicans in the United States, conditioned on economic and political reforms that help more Mexicans get ahead and stay back home.
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