TIJUANA (By Tessie Borden, Hispanic PR Wire) April 24, 2004 - Mexico did its part to protect American interests during the war against Iraq, Mexican Interior Minister Santiago Creel said Wednesday. Now, he hopes the United States will reopen immigration talks that have stalled since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Meeting here with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Creel said that if Mexico can show it helped stop terrorist threats during the war with its Operation Centinela, then the United States should consider legalizing undocumented immigrant workers, which would be in its security interests.

The success of Centinela appears to be Mexico's opening bid in its efforts to renew immigration talks. Ridge and Creel are expected today to announce new border cooperation between the two countries. No details were released.

Centinela, which began with the war and ended Monday, involved the redeployment of 18,000 military troops and 12,000 federal police officers to guard Mexico's northern and southern borders, airports, seaports, oil platforms, energy plants, communities with a large American presence and the U.S. Embassy. It was aimed at nabbing potential terrorists who might try to cross through Mexico into the United States.

"We want what we did to be known," Creel told foreign correspondents arriving in Tijuana for the two-day talks. "The U.S. could hardly count on another ally that would devote 30,000 personnel to protect active interests and people of American nationality."

Creel said that when he met with Ridge in January, he told the secretary that in "matters of internal security, we have a total alliance."

He said undocumented immigrants who come to the United States for work would be less of a security concern if they were legalized because U.S. officials would know who they were and where they lived. Then, Creel said, both countries could concentrate on the real security threats facing them.

Centinela Yields Arrests

During the monthlong Centinela, Creel said, 15 Iraqi nationals and 62 people "of nationalities that could present a risk," identified as mostly Middle Easterners, were arrested.

Magdalena Carral Cuevas, Mexico's immigration commissioner, said none of the Iraqis had ties to terrorist groups. Eleven were Christians who claimed they were persecuted in their country and wanted asylum in the United States. They were turned over to U.S. authorities. Three others are being held on immigration and false-document charges in Mexico. Another was being held by Mexican immigration authorities, but it was not clear whether he would be charged or deported.

Creel said Mexican officials shared intelligence with American counterparts and checked several perceived threats, none of which turned out to be substantive. Twelve tips came from U.S. officials who passed them on to Mexican officials.

Controlling Gateway

Though Centinela officially has ended, Creel said a mechanism was left in place for state and federal police to work together in the future to control the movement of undocumented immigrants.

During the past month, about 3,500 troops and police were stationed in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state and a gateway for undocumented workers from Central and South America. Officials said some troops are working joint patrols with Guatemalan authorities along the largely uncontrolled border with that country. It is an area of vast jungles and hidden trails, where immigrant movements are difficult to detect from the air and even on the ground.

Creel could not say how much Centinela cost.

Carral Cuevas said arrests are down at Mexico's southern border, but it's difficult to know whether the illegal flow of immigrants is down or whether authorities are just making fewer arrests.

Mexican immigration officials in Chiapas had arrested 16,480 immigrants from January to mid-April, compared with 19,089 last year. Chiapas arrests are a rough indicator of immigrant traffic across the Mexican-Guatemalan border. In the rest of the nation from January to April, immigration authorities arrested 20,675 undocumented immigrants, compared with 19,614 last year. Total arrests are down slightly, to 37,155 this year from 38,703 last year.

But some who work with immigrants believe traffic is up.

Ademar Varilli runs La Casa del Migrante, a shelter for northbound immigrants on the Guatemalan side. Varilli said he did not see much change on the border during Centinela, except perhaps in the higher prices smugglers charge.

He complained that authorities now see a terrorist in every immigrant when most simply want a job. From the numbers of people flowing through his shelter, he believes illegal immigration into Mexico is growing. And he doesn't think it will stop soon.

"Migrants' needs," he said, "are much stronger than the plans of governments."