Fox Seeks More From Bush Immigration Plan

Jan 9, 2004
By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY - Government leaders Thursday praised the immigration reform proposed by President Bush, pledging to work with the U.S. Congress to ensure the measure passes.

But President Vicente Fox and the others indicated the new American proposal did not meet all their goals. "We're going for more. We're going for more," he told reporters during a visit to a shelter for street children.

Fox has repeatedly urged Bush to legalize the millions of Mexicans who cross the border illegally to work in the United States. The money they send home is Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil.

Bush's plan, unveiled Wednesday, would create a temporary worker program for illegal migrants now in the United States and those in other countries who have been offered employment in America.

Migrants would be able to obtain renewable three-year labor visas, but Bush said they would not receive special consideration for permanent residence or citizenship.

The plan would help ease a situation in which major U.S. industries depend on illegal workers while giving the workers legal protection and making it easier for them to keep up ties with Mexico.

Fox said the immigration proposal "is a great step forward. It is an achievement of the measures we have been taking during these three years" since taking office in 2000.

"It is going to allow millions of Mexicans who are there, undocumented and with problems, to be able to work with full legality, with full respect for their labor and human rights," Fox added.

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez indicated that Mexico will lobby the U.S. Congress to pass Bush's proposal.

"It's always been evident to us that we have to work with the U.S. Congress so that it creates a series of laws so that what has been laid out in this proposal becomes a reality," Derbez told Mexico City's Monitor Radio on Thursday.

But Bush's migration overhaul was attacked by Mexico's largest opposition party, which worried it was little more than election-year pandering.

"The November elections are very close and what we hope is that it doesn't only have the objective of attracting the Hispanic vote, but that it really becomes a firm base to start to discuss important themes," said Roberto Madrazo, head of the Institutional Revolutionary, which controlled the presidency for 71 straight years before losing to Fox in 2000.

During his speech at the shelter on Thursday, Fox said the Bush proposal "is the response to the effort and work that we as a government have carried out to defend the human rights, the labor rights, the rights of citizens of our compatriots."

"It is a demonstration of collaboration which we appreciate," Fox said, adding: "We will continue working for an integral immigration treaty."

Derbez said officials from both countries had already begun studying the proposal and would discuss it at a Summit of the Americas conference next week in the northern city of Monterrey.

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