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 News from Around the Americas | March 2006 
Bush Hopeful at Summit on Issues of Immigration
 George E. Condon Jr. & S. Lynne Walker - Copley News
| | President Bush and his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, spoke yesterday as they toured the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza near Cancun, Mexico. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP) |
President Bush expressed optimism yesterday as he opened talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on a wide range of border, trade and security issues, predicting that Congress will deliver an immigration bill he can accept.
After starting the day with a dash of sightseeing at ancient Mayan ruins, Bush told Mexican President Vicente Fox that he believes the U.S. Congress will give him a comprehensive immigration bill – a reversal of the pessimism that marked their previous meeting last year.
The goal, he told Fox, is “a border that works.”
Bush's comments came on the first day of a two-day summit with Fox and newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at this Caribbean resort city.
With Fox by his side, Bush addressed the vigorous debate over immigration legislation taking place in Congress. U.S. legislators' harsh criticisms of Mexican migrants have echoed loudly here.
“I'm optimistic we can get a bill done,” Bush said. “And I look forward to continuing to work with members of both parties to get a bill done.”
His tone was a far cry from the last time he met with Fox. At that summit, which also included then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, the president stressed that any progress was out of his hands.
“You've got my pledge, I'll continue working on it,” he told Fox during their meeting last March at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. But he quickly added, “You don't have my pledge that Congress will act, because I'm not a member of the legislative branch.”
Yesterday, Bush said he told Fox he was committed to signing a “comprehensive immigration bill.”
“And by 'comprehensive,' I mean not only a bill that has border security in it, but a bill that has a worker permit program in it,” he added. “That's an important part of having a border that works.
“We don't want people sneaking into our country that are going to do jobs Americans won't do. We want them coming in an orderly way, which will take pressure off of both our borders.”
Mexican officials once had been optimistic that Fox and Bush would be able to use their good personal relationship to get a U.S. immigration policy that would provide better treatment for Mexicans who entered the United States illegally.
But as they began what is almost certainly going to be their last substantive summit prior to Fox's departure from office later this year, the Mexican president held out little hope of any breakthrough.
“It is not here, in these meetings, where a migration agreement is made,” Fox told reporters. “It is now an issue for the Congress of the United States. And there they will make the decision. It is no longer between President Bush and President Fox.”
Last week, Mexico ran advertisements in U.S. newspapers in an attempt to influence the congressional debate.
Fox stressed he was not meddling in what he called “a sovereign decision” that the U.S. Congress may make. But, he added, “Mexico assumes its responsibilities to work with passion, with commitment” on migration matters.
He described border control as a “shared” responsibility with the United States, and highlighted Mexico's work to apprehend those who smuggle people across the border. Also, in contrast to earlier meetings with U.S. presidents, Fox also noted that Mexico accepts it must be better at securing its southern border, which thousands of Central Americans cross on their way to the United States.
In a nod to those efforts, Bush told Fox, “I want to thank your government for sending out such a strong statement about the . . . shared responsibility we have” on the border.
Fox said yesterday that he had raised a major water-rights dispute between the two countries. The Mexican leader said he is committed to work “together, have a dialogue, find solutions” to the fight over a U.S. plan to conserve water by lining a 23-mile stretch of the All-American Canal, which carries Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley.
The project is unpopular in Mexico, where farmers in Mexicali count on seepage from the canal to irrigate their fields. The plan to line the leaky stretch with concrete is designed to save enough water to supply up to 134,000 households in San Diego County.
Fox said he urged Bush to reactivate a working commission to settle the issue.
In response, the U.S. president agreed with Fox that their two countries need to keep talking about the canal, said Daniel Fisk of the National Security Council. But, he said, Bush also stressed to Fox that this was a matter that will be determined by state governments and not by Washington. The canal-project push comes primarily from the state of California, with the backing of Colorado.
The three leaders began the day about 100 miles from Cancun at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. For Bush, it was a rare bow to the desires of a host government to show off its cultural treasures. In past trips, Bush has insisted on an all-business approach, racing through Russia's Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, bypassing the Taj Mahal in India and refusing to spend more than 30 minutes seeing the Great Wall of China.
Wearing a tropical short-sleeve shirt, khaki pants and rough-soled hiking shoes, Bush joined the other leaders in walking in the shadow of a steep, 75-foot pyramid named El Castillo and watching a band perform a Yucatan dance.
Bush also met with Harper, who insisted that the two governments have moved beyond the rift caused by Canadian opposition to Bush's launching of the war in Iraq. Harper, elected as a pro-American candidate, said he will vigorously press Canada's case against U.S. trade restrictions on softwood products from Canada. |
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