Stephanie Jackter - 11-1-2003 at 11:23 PM
Mexico's Fox to Visit U.S. Border States
By LISA J. ADAMS
Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- President Vicente Fox will discuss trade and promote talks on Mexican migration with state leaders in Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas, which are home to millions of people of Mexican heritage, a top official said Friday.
Migration will be the major theme of the three-day trip starting Saturday as Fox meets with governors, legislators and mayors - "the people who know
firsthand the advantages, opportunities and challenges involved in the migration phenomenon," said Mexican Deputy Foreign Secretary for the United
States Geronimo Gutierrez.
Fox also will promote trade and investment and discuss programs to help the 6.3 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans living in the three states.
The visit follows an Oct. 20 meeting between Fox and President Bush in which the two pledged to work toward an agreement on migration.
Mexico wants to bring a measure of legality to the approximately 4 million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States and wants a legal way for
others to work in the country in the future.
The talks had stalled, first when the Sept. 11 terror attacks prompted the United States to tighten border restrictions, then later over Mexico's
reluctance to support the Iraq war. Tensions also arose over Bush's refusal to stop the execution of a Mexican national in Texas.
Officials from the two countries are scheduled to meet next month in Washington. There, U.S. officials "will demonstrate to the Mexican people and to
Americans that we are serious about resolving immigration issues," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said recently.
Fox's meetings with leaders in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico could help lay the groundwork for migration talks at the federal level. Gutierrez noted
that Arizona's state legislature, for example, recently approved a declaration backing a future guest-worker program for Mexican migrants.
The two guest-worker bills that have been proposed in the U.S. Congress originated in Arizona and Texas: One from Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain
and two of McCain's Republican House colleagues, Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake; and a second from Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
JESSE - 11-2-2003 at 05:20 PM
