Bush arrives in Mexico for talks
CANCUN, Mexico – With the emotional immigration debate roiling politics to the north, President Bush arrived here Wednesday evening for meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The three-party conference, aimed at bolstering a year-old economic and security partnership, comes at a sensitive moment in U.S.-Mexican relations. The Senate is debating a proposal that would overhaul the United States’ immigration laws. It would tighten border restrictions and create a program that would allow some of the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants to become citizens without having to leave the country.
It is unclear whether the United States’ latest effort to tighten its borders will interfere with Bush’s ongoing agenda to invigorate economic cooperation, and how much can be accomplished at the meeting today and Friday, with each leader in uneasy domestic political circumstances.
Bush is struggling to overcome the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Fox is in the final year of a six-year term and cannot run for re-election, and Harper, who heads a minority Conservative government, came to power only two months ago after an election in which he was accused of being too cozy with the Bush administration.
Bush favors allowing restricted numbers of foreigners to work legally in the United States in a “guest worker” program. But he opposes giving undocumented immigrants in the U.S. an edge over those seeking American citizenship from abroad.
Fox, who has praised the Senate measure as “a step forward,” is expected to assure Bush that Mexico will implement greater security measures along the border if the bill becomes law, Mexican media reported.
On Tuesday, Fox said he was “moderately optimistic” about the legislation’s prospects, adding that the bill resembled the immigration program he promised to seek soon after taking office in 2000. His inability to make good on the vow has been one of the disappointments of his presidency.
With the Mexican presidential election little more than three months away, Fox is under pressure to demonstrate that he remains an effective leader who can stand up to the United States to defend his country’s interests. He has been working hard to pump life into the campaign of Felipe Calderon, the candidate of his center-right National Action Party. Calderon trails leftist contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by a wide margin in polls.
Both presidential candidates are united in opposing an immigration bill that the U.S. House of Representatives approved last year. It would make illegal entry into the United States a felony, criminalize humanitarian assistance to undocumented immigrants, and add 700 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Before leaving Washington, Bush reiterated his position on the immigration bills. “You cannot enforce the border without having a temporary guest worker program – the two go hand in hand,” he said during a question-and-answer session with the nonprofit Freedom House advocacy group. “There are people doing jobs Americans will not do. Many people who have come into our country are helping our economy grow. It’s just a fact of life.”