JONES HAD IT RIGHT ON IMMIGRATION.

Byline: THOMAS D. ELIAS

BY almost all standards, Republican Bill Jones ran an absolutely abysmal, hopeless campaign for the U.S. Senate this fall. The Central Valley farmer, ethanol maker and former secretary of state gained no ground after the March primary election on the vulnerable Democrat Barbara Boxer. He even pulled the rug from under his own effort by reneging on a promise to donate $2 million to himself.

But on at least one thing, Jones was absolutely correct and downright astute: His stance on immigration.

About a month before Election Day, Jones presented an immigration plan far better than anything the two presidential candidates had to offer. Its major points included staples like improving border enforcement and conducting a sustained campaign to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers.

He also called for the federal government to reimburse state and local governments for the costs of failed immigration policies, including education, health care and the expense of housing many illegal immigrants in state prisons. Jones estimated direct costs in the state budget amount to $3 billion to $5 billion yearly, not including what cities and counties must pay. Of course, he did not mention that the sales, utility, gasoline and other state and local taxes paid by illegal immigrants probably balance out many of those costs.

Governors from George Deukmejian in the 1980s and Pete Wilson and Gray Davis in the '90s to Arnold Schwarzenegger have begged, cajoled, sued and threatened the federal government while trying to get some kind of reimbursement for federal border failures, since about one-third of illegal immigrants end up in California. But no president, Republican or Democrat, has given an inch.

Jones also favored a guest-worker program, but not one as broad as what President Bush says he'd like. Jones called only for ``matching willing workers with willing employers when American workers cannot fill the jobs.'' But he offered no credible suggestion about how this might be enforced - how to be sure there really are no American workers for jobs to be filled by immigrants.

For years, high-tech firms have used H1-B visas in a program much like what Jones seeks for all employers, hiring foreign workers even when groups of American engineers and technicians maintain they are available for the same jobs but might need higher wages than eager-to-please immigrants. Not much effort has ever gone into forcing companies like Intel, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard to prove they really must hire foreigners, and without proper enforcement, any guest-worker program becomes a farce that eventually leads virtually all immigrants involved to stay in America, legally or not.

But the most important part of the Jones immigration plan covers subjects that Bush and others are loath to touch: What's wrong in Mexico - the source of about 82 percent of all immigrants to America - that drives its citizens north in an unending stream.

``For too long, Mexico has used the United States job market as its pressure valve to relieve demands for true reform in its own country,'' he said. ``Simply to keep up with new labor market entrants, Mexico needs to create 800,000 jobs each year.'' Instead, Mexico lost 1.2 million jobs over the last three years.

Jones listed several reforms needed before Mexico can realistically start creating enough jobs to keep its people at home. Among them are such basics as improving education to the point where far more than today's 25 percent of all teenagers complete high school and ending official corruption that drags down productivity by rewarding incompetent, inefficient companies that bribe government officials at all levels.

In short, Jones got it about immigration. The only way to stem the constant tide of immigrants coming north, legal or not, is to make conditions in Mexico palatable.

The last California politician to address this reality so directly was Wilson, while a U.S. senator in the 1980s. But Wilson got nowhere then and there has been no substantial reform in spite of several changes of government in Mexico.

Now that Jones is gone, no longer a threat to either of them, it's time for Boxer and fellow Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein to pick up on the valid ideas he pushed. And his call for putting pressure on Mexico for internal reform should be the first one they seize.