Let's talk feet.

      For the United States, not all feet are the same. There are feet that as soon as they touch American soil are welcomed. Others have only to cross the border to be instantly rejected. And it takes a wide knowledge of U.S. immigration podiatry to know which feet can stay and which will be stomped on and deported.

      However, something that is clear is the American government is not keen on wet feet. For instance, if a Cuban "boat person" covers the 90 miles from Havana to the Florida shores but is detained on the high seas with his feet wet, he will be returned to the island of the tyrant, Fidel Castro. Likewise, if a Mexican or Salvadoran national crosses the Rio Bravo (known as the Rio Grande in the United States) and, wet-footed, is detained by U.S. immigration agents, he is deported in short order. Conclusion: having wet feet is cause for repatriation, no matter where you are from.

      Having dry feet is something else. If a Cuban dissident _ or anyone who is fed-up with 47 years of dictatorship _ avoids security agents in Cuba, defies the treacherous currents of the Florida Straits, the hurricanes and the sharks, and is able to step with dry feet on a little piece of land in the United States, within a year of his arrival he automatically becomes a legal U.S. resident. What is sad is that the U.S. Coast Guard has been instructed to intercept any boat on the open sea coming from Cuba to prevent this from happening. And I myself have often seen live on TV the shameful spectacle of ultramodern U.S. Coast Guard boats ramming the flimsy craft in which Cubans arrive for hours to prevent them from touching solid ground.

      Having your feet dry on the ground, however, does not always guarantee a welcome. A few days ago, 15 Cuban boat people who had reached the old Seven Miles Bridge in the Florida Keys were returned to Cuba. The bridge, unfortunately, is no longer connected to any island _ several tracts of it have been removed _ so, therefore, some bureaucrat decided that these Cubans were technically at sea and not on American territory. Absurd!

      The point is they were returned to a country where there are at least 333 political prisoners, according to the independent Cuban Human Rights Commission. In addition, nobody knows what will happen to these deportees. Certainly, nothing good. A U.S. judge is already studying the case _ the claimants are asking for the return of those Cubans to American soil _ and thanks to the hunger strike of Democracy Movement's Ramon Saul Sanchez, the White House has agreed to examine its Cuban immigration policy. Meanwhile, those boat people are currently in limbo.

      In spite of Kafkaesque incidents like this, Cuban citizens with dry feet have a greater advantage over, say, Mexicans with dry feet. If a Mexican crosses the border illegally and, with his extremities totally dry, touches the Arizona Mountains or the Texas and California deserts, he'd better hide or start running, because if he's captured by a Border Patrol agent he will, literally, be given the bum's rush. In other words, the agent detains and deports him.

      My Mexican compatriots frequently complain about Cuban immigrants getting preferential treatment when it comes to immigration. And of course this is true: the dry foot of a Cuban has more rights than the dry foot of any other Latin American or Caribbean national.

      However, they do deserve it. First, Cubans are escaping from a brutal nail-pulling, sleep-killing dictatorship; that is not the case for Mexicans. Second, their fellow Cuban representatives in Congress have fought hard to protect them.

      But what I want to point out is this: instead of complaining, Mexicans (and other Latin American nationals) should demand that their politicians defend them in Washington as Cuban congressmen do. This is the only way that laws can be changed. Not with yelling or moaning.

      And now that we are talking about the people who cross the border between Mexico and the United States on foot, suffice it to say no wall will stop the great march north. In the two minutes you have taken to read this column, two immigrants have crossed illegally from Mexico to the United States. And this continues to be the case day and night.

      The reason is simple: in Latin America (despite the fact the region grew 5.5 percent in 2005) there is not enough decent-paying work, and in the United States jobs pay 10 to 15 times more. Therefore, if Americans insist on spending (and squandering) $8 billion on building a 620-mile wall, the dry-feet immigrants will simply cross through the remaining 1,240 miles of wall-less border. Or they will leap over the wall, Olympically. That easy.

      What is urgently needed, then, is a "feet" policy that really works (and not just a legislative pedicure). Why? Because Cubans will continue using their feet to flee the Castro regime's terrible repression; because Mexicans will protest with their feet at the lack of jobs in their country; and because every time there is a crisis in Latin America, their citizens will vote with their feet as they seek refuge in the United States. It is the reality of our continent's sad history of feet.

      A reasonable and realistic immigration policy must recognize two things: One, that for the United States to grow, to keep down inflation, to support its elderly, etc., it needs nearly 1 million new immigrants every year; and two, that the 11 million undocumented people already in this country (who are neither criminals or terrorists) make a huge contribution to America's economy and deserve the respect and protection of the world's richest nation. Unfortunately, the so-called Sensenbrenner Act (proposed by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.), which makes it a felony to be an illegal immigrant and was approved in December by the House of Representatives, does not take this into account. It is literally a law without sense.

      The United States is a country making great progress thanks to the feet (dry and wet) that arrive from other places. But its immigration laws, like old, broken down shoes, are filled with holes, have uneven soles, cause blisters and calluses, and hurt. It is time to buy new shoes!