President Obama soon will visit our southern neighbor Mexico, which is good news considering the ongoing problems along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, the relationship between Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon may hold the key to many problems impacting the United States and Mexico domestically -- drug-related violence and the economy, for sure, but also immigration.

One of the misperceptions of the U.S. immigration debate is that passage of an immigration reform bill by Congress would be the magic bullet that slays the dragon of illegal immigration. While such a bill is indispensable to a long-term solution and must be acted upon -- sooner rather than later -- it should be understood that the humane and lasting answer to this vexing social issue lies in regional, if not global, cooperation among nation-states. Immigration is not simply a domestic issue, but also one of foreign affairs.

If the world is a marketplace, then migrants and their labor help deliver the produce and stock the shelves. In other terms, while economically powerful nations hold the capital, migrants help fill the jobs needed to turn capital into profit. Such an important role in the world economic order should hold an honored place, with the appropriate legal and labor protections.

However, in North America, Europe and most places in the industrialized world, migrant workers are left without legal protection, criminalized and blamed for myriad social ills.

The de facto migration relationship between the United States and Mexico is a prime example. Migrants from Mexico, unable to fully support their families at home, are forced to take a dangerous journey to the United States and fill menial but important jobs in the U.S. economy -- dishwashers, farm workers, and day laborers, to name a few.

As a result, the United States receives the benefit of their toil and taxes without having to worry about protecting their rights, either in the courtroom or the workplace. When convenient, they are made political scapegoats and attacked -- both rhetorically and through work-site raids -- as if they were not human.

Under this system, Mexico wins financially as well, as the country receives up to $20 billion in remittances per year without having to pay attention to the lower rungs of the economy. What is left is a "go-north" policy which exposes Mexican citizens to the ravages of human smugglers, corrupt law enforcement officials and potential death in the desert.

The losers in this globalization game are the migrants themselves, of course, who have no political power and are unable to defend themselves from inevitable abuse and exploitation. They are pawns in a system which preys upon their desperation and expropriates their work ethic.

As in a chess match, they are expendable and at the service of the most valuable player, the king.

As a moral matter, the United States and Mexico cannot have it both ways, accepting the labor and remittances of these immigrants without recognizing their basic human rights. It is time for both nations to abandon this bi-national "nod and wink" policy, which cannot be found written in law but is all too real.

In its place, they should reform their national immigration laws and enforce current labor and due-process protections, so that migrants can come out of the shadows and travel and work in a safe and controlled manner. Over the long term, joint efforts should be pursued to promote development in sending communities so that migrants can remain at home to work and support their families in dignity.

At a minimum, both leaders should work to ensure that international economic agreements, like NAFTA, do not devastate industries which employ low-skilled workers in their home countries.

As with any new administration, there is hope. President Obama has indicated his support of reform of U.S. immigration laws as well as for addressing the root causes of migration, such as underdevelopment overseas. President Calderon has emphasized the need for job creation among Mexico's poor and has acknowledged ongoing mistreatment of migrants within Mexico.

Together, they have the opportunity to reframe the immigration debate in a way that recognizes the effects of globalization on the movement of labor, yet injects basic human rights principles into the system. The world would take note. The two president can also remind us and the global community that migrants, including those without legal status, are not goods to be traded, but human beings to be protected.

John C. Wester is the bishop of Salt Lake City and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration.