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For those who consider immigrants from Mexico crossing the desert to enter the United States to be invading hordes of people too lazy to do it "the right way," the human stories of people in dire straits who are rescued in the desert by the Border Patrol won't make a difference.

But a story Tuesday by the Star's Brady McCombs illustrates the very human need for real changes in U.S. immigration policy.

If our elected officials aren't prompted to act by U.S. farmers who are not planting tomatoes because they don't know if they'll have the labor force necessary to harvest, and if they're not spurred by word that American farmers are leasing land in Mexico because they can't find the workers here — then maybe they'll be moved by the story of the Chiapas woman who suffered a miscarriage Sunday while crossing the desert near Tucson.

The 25-year-old woman told Border Patrol agents that she came into the United States with a group west of Sasabe. She fell on her right hip while trekking across the desert and went into labor in a vehicle carrying her group north. She had a miscarriage in the vehicle and was dropped off in Marana, where she called for help Sunday morning.

The hard-liners who see undocumented immigrants only as lawbreakers, not people, may scoff that this woman deserved to lose her baby. Of course, that's not true.

Maybe elected officials will be prompted to act by another rescue the Border Patrol made on Sunday. Agents called for Borstar, the Border Patrol's search, trauma and rescue team, after parents told them that their 4-month-old daughter had not eaten in four days.

The mother and baby were taken to University Medical Center and treated for dehydration. They, and the father, were returned to Mexico.

"It's a classic example of just how desperate the people we're dealing with are," said Rob Daniels, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. "To be willing to put themselves and their child at that kind of risk — that could have just as easily turned into a fatality."

Until people in Mexico and Central America are able to find good work close to home, the risk of coming to the U.S. illegally will be a risk worth taking. If the choice remains living in extreme poverty at home or coming north, people in dire circumstances will keep trying to make the journey.

Walls and fences and high-tech systems are no match for desperation.

We know people are coming. We know they are dying. We know they are pushed by circumstances at home and pulled by jobs in the United States. It is wrong to decide that, because of their birthplace, some people must live in poverty.

The United States has a moral responsibility to act humanely and make the changes necessary that will allow people to come here to work, and then return home.