From the L.A. Times:

If Americans have misgivings this week about President Bush's plan to extend workers' rights to illegal immigrants from Mexico, they should look to the future, when many more migrant laborers will no doubt begin flowing across the border.

That's because the root cause of illegal immigration is the lack of employment opportunities in Mexico's poor economy. And that economy is getting worse, not better.

"We are in the fourth year of employment decline," says Mexico City-based economist Rogelio Ramirez de la O. The country needs to create 800,000 jobs a year just to keep up with new entrants to the labor force. Instead it has lost 1.2 million jobs in the last three years...

But a U.S. guest-worker program isn't the real answer. As Ramirez so rightfully points out: "Mexico cannot continue to pass on our responsibility for job creation to another government."