WANTED - A PARTNER

The Hemisphere: Felipe Calderon's diatribe on immigration Sunday angered
many Americans, and wasted a perfect chance to turn the U.S. into an
ally. When will Mexico realize it must be a partner?

It was downright painful to hear Mexico's new president resort to the
kind of U.S.-blaming immigration rhetoric of past Mexican governments
seeking to obscure their own failures, as if nothing were different in
Mexico since he took office.

"I again strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S.
Congress and government, measures that are making the persecution and
humiliating treatment of undocumented Mexican workers worse," Calderon
told the country in his first state of the nation address, protesting
the U.S. crackdown in illegal immigration.

Not only is it infantile for a sitting Mexican president to blame the
U.S. for enforcing its sovereign borders, it's also no way to resolve
the chronic illegal immigration issue dividing the two nations.

It's also a shame because Calderon has achieved enough in his
presidency to soothe and possibly change U.S. sentiment.

For one thing, he has launched a head-on confrontation with Mexico's
biggest monster, its drug lords. He's put 24,000 boots on the ground
to destroy them, refusing to ignore them. They control a big swath of
the global drug trade, and their violence often spills into America.
The U.S. has a big stake in Mexico winning.

But Calderon said little about how his decision to go to war has
already brought concrete results. According to U.S. drug czar John
Walters, Mexico's effort has been pivotal in doubling prices of
cocaine in U.S. cities as traffickers have been pummeled. Never have
such results happened so fast. Calderon can put his name on it.

Second, the Mexican president is pursuing free-market economic
policies that work. In his speech, he noted the creation of 618,000
formal jobs -- far more than his predecessors ever did -- which are
particularly critical in persuading Mexicans to stay.

Both trump cards are so strong, they're capable of persuading a
skeptical U.S. electorate to rethink an immigration deal without
forcing it into scrapping the rule of law or bailing out a failure.

So instead of berating the U.S. for cracking down on illegal
immigration, Calderon could have said that Mexico is at war, and until
it wins the drug war, it asks for temporary U.S. immigration relief to
reduce pressure on the government and help it focus on victory.

It's honest, it doesn't insult the American rule of law, and it makes
the U.S. a partner. Central American countries have already done this
successfully, and there's been very little public outcry.

As an anvil, Calderon could also assure that Mexico's ongoing job
creation will dampen incentives to more illegal immigration, raising
U.S. confidence that the help Mexico seeks will be finite.

Calderon has already asked the U.S. for $1 billion to fight the drug
war. Adding immigration to the package might bring the U.S. in as a
partner instead of an unwilling patron.

That could give Mexico both an immigration deal and space for victory.
Calderon needs to start being a good partner.