Message from Mexico

MEXICO CITY – As the U.S. Senate focuses this week on illegal immigration, Mexico has launched a campaign to convince Americans that it will do more to stop the flow of undocumented workers and prevent violence along the border.

U.S. officials have praised the Mexican overtures, which include adoption and publishing of a new immigration policy that calls for creation of economic and housing programs that would lure Mexican workers home and an accord to better cooperate with U.S. officials on quickly responding to border crime.

While skeptics note that some of the promises clash with Mexico’s long-held positions and actions, U.S. and Mexican officials say the moves reflect a rare public commitment by Mexican authorities to accept responsibility for the root causes of illegal immigration and take steps to prevent it.

“What we have accepted nationally is that we have responsibilities,” said Silvia Hernandez, a Mexican senator and principal author of the new written immigration policy. “Do we have homework to do? Yes. Do we have to revise our laws? Yes.”

The Mexican government is working toward the same goal as the Bush administration: a guest-worker program that would regulate the undocumented immigrants already in the United States and the half-million Mexicans who cross the border illegally each year. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Monday whether to approve such a bill and send it to the full Senate.

Many congressional Republicans instead favor legislation approved in the House in December that focuses only on tougher border enforcement. That legislation would extend border fences, speed deportations, make illegal immigration a felony and crack down on those who employ or assist illegal immigrants.

The immigration topic will be front and center when President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox meet in a three-way summit Thursday and Friday in Cancun, Mexico, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Fox has made easier immigration for Mexican workers one of his primary goals before leaving office this year, and the two presidents are likely to try to show a united front in support of the guest-worker idea.

But Bush administration officials say they have made it clear that Mexico needs to show it is doing more to address immigration problems.

“We’ve talked a lot about that,” said a senior Bush administration official. “What the American people will be listening for … is measures to enhance protection of the border. We are looking for some concrete steps … that our partners in the hemisphere take the situation seriously.”

One step was announced this month, when U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Mexican Interior Minister Carlos Abascal met in Texas to announce a plan to respond jointly to border crime. The plan calls for immediate communication and response, “bilateral coordination of investigations” and “appropriate patrolling of the border region.”

Chertoff praised Mexico for its increased cooperation in law enforcement matters.

Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said the new accord “will enable us to focus on the criminals we really need to worry about, while ensuring that the flow of legitimate tourism and commerce between our two countries can continue to grow.”

The Bush administration also has pressured Mexico to control the flow of undocumented Central American immigrants.