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JEB SHARP: I'm Jeb Sharp, and this is The World, a co-production of The BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. President-Elect Barack Obama is scheduled to meet Mexico's president Felipe Calderon on Monday. It will be Mr. Obama's first meeting with a foreign leader since his election. It's something of a tradition for new American presidents to meet their Mexican counterparts early on. This time around, there are numerous items on the agenda. There's the battle against drug trafficking cartels, for instance, and trade concerns. And then there's immigration and the millions of Mexicans who currently live and work in the United States illegally. Doris Meissner headed the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton. The INS is no more and immigration is now handled by the Department of Homeland Security. Doris Meissner, how do you read the significance of the meeting on Monday? Is that sort of standard, or is there some kind of indication that, you know, there's a special interest on the part of President-elect Obama on getting immigration reform going?

DORIS MEISSNER: Well, I think it's both. It is a standard meeting but it is also the case that the issues between the United States and Mexico are very important. The President-elect has said in his campaign that he wants to be able to do something about the immigration issue.

SHARP: The last 8 years were a big disappointment I think to Mexico. There were such high hopes and lots of talk early on in the Bush administration about immigration reform and it just didn't happen. And, I mean, have the goal posts changed? Could it really be easier now, or will it be the same political struggle?

MEISSNER: It will be a political struggle, but the goal posts have also shifted. The issues of the economy, first of all, will be the most urgent issues for the Congress to take up. But the economy issues have also meant that the rate of illegal immigration into the United States has slowed considerably. There is some evidence that some people who are in the country illegally are returning to their homes, but that's not really as significant as the rate slowing, that there are not as many new people attempting to come because there are simply not jobs here for them. And the kind of legislation that would need to be enacted does need to fix our immigration laws, and it needs to fix the ways in which people come to the country so there's the opportunity for more people to come here legally for work purposes. But that isn't particularly pressing right now when we're seeing the incredible loss of jobs and the hard hit that American workers are taking in this recession.

SHARP: But tell me a little bit more about that, because it's interesting. If illegal crossings are slowing at the border, does in some sense the border become more secure? And therefore, is there a political opening for President-elect Obama?

MEISSNER: There could be, but that will be a temporary situation. As soon as the economy starts to get better, the attraction for people to come illegally will increase.

SHARP: In terms of President-elect Obama choosing former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano to head Homeland Security, any specific approach there or would she also be along these lines?

MEISSNER: I think the even more important thing about her is the fact that she's been the choice for the Department of Homeland Security. She will be the first person coming into a cabinet position, that I can recall, who has really quite extensive knowledge and experience with immigration issues. And I'm assuming that part of the reason that she was selected for this position is because of that knowledge and because the President-elect is signaling that he wants somebody in that department and in his cabinet who has thought about these things and has credibility with them.

SHARP: Doris Meissner was Commissioner of the INS during the Clinton Administration. She's currently a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute at Washington. Thanks for speaking with us.

MEISSNER: Thank you so much.

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