I read with interest your editorial "Activists asking for too much on immigration," (Dec. 12). I'm a fifth generation El Pasoan, who has lived and traveled extensively in Mexico. For more than a decade, I have proudly represented El Paso, Texas and recently served as chair of the Border Legislative Caucus, a group of state lawmakers from the 10 U.S. and Mexican Border states.

One day soon, our nation will view America's recent history on immigration with shame. History has shown that anti-immigration sentiment almost always follows a threat to national security. Despite the fact that none of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the United States through Mexico, the focus over the past several years has been on our southwestern border.

Nearly every immigration expert, including Arizona's governor, has stated that a wall is not the answer — that more, better trained border enforcement, coupled with aerial and technological surveillance have proved to be better and most cost-effective security solutions. For our country to prosper, we must lead the way in the safe, fast and secure movement of people and products in a post-9/11 world.

In my view, the symbolism of the new wall will create a generation of hostility when our nation most needs a generation of support. West of El Paso, gaping holes mark a nearly new fence. Right now, our neighbors call the walls "muros de odio," or "walls of hatred" on our southern border.

Since Mexico's entry into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1986 and 1993, respectively, Mexico has become the United States' No. 1 trade partner. Texas alone trades more with Mexico than all the European Union combined. While achieving adequate security is a central issue along the border, security policies should not include highly fortified barriers that impede economic growth along the U.S.-Mexico Border.

The wall will surely hurt American interests all across the Americas for a whole generation.

How much better for all of us to guarantee real border security, work on comprehensive immigration, invest in infrastructure and build bridges to a better relationship, not walls of further division.

Juarez's 1,400 murders won't stop with walls — but will with coordinated, targeted police work aimed at kingpins and forfeitures like New York's Sicilian initiative of the''80s.

From Roosevelt to Kennedy, the best of American Presidents have recognized that our future in the Americas is partnering with friends for prosperity, not pandering to extremists for politics.

More than ever, Mexico needs us to strengthen our ties and strengthen her society. In a recent visit to Texas, the former Soviet president and Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev said, "I don't think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution . . . Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with."

For centuries, America has served as a symbol of freedom and democracy throughout the world. How long will it take for our great nation to repair the ill will that these walls have engendered around the world?

Is it too much too soon to ask that this wall come down or is it the right thing to do at the right time in history?

If not now, when? If not under President-elect Barack Obama, then who?