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 News from Around the Americas | July 2006 
US Immigration Reform Unlikely Soon, Bush Tells Fox
 Reuters
| | Day laborers wait for prospective employers to arrive at a day labor hiring area in Laguna Beach, California, July 14, 2006. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) |
US President Bush told Mexican President Vicente Fox the U.S. Congress is unlikely to pass immigration reforms before November congressional elections, Fox said on Monday.
The Mexican president asked Bush about Congress' negotiations on immigration when the two leaders met at the Group of Eight summit in Russia during the weekend.
Bush cautioned that time was running out.
"He pointed out that this period is very short, there are only two or three weeks before Congress members go on the election campaign," Fox told Mexican radio on a flight from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Madrid.
"So the chance of the immigration issue reaching approval in the House of Representatives and reaching joint approval isn't very high," Fox said.
Fox has pushed for a loosening of U.S. immigration laws to allow more Mexicans to work legally in the United States since he came to power more than five years ago.
But Mexican government officials complain that fight became more difficult after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the growing U.S. focus on homeland security.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist last week gave less than even odds that Congress would pass the immigration law overhaul before the congressional elections.
The Tennessee Republican said election year politics and lack of movement by the House of Representatives toward a comprehensive approach sought by the Senate and Bush complicated negotiations for final legislation.
The Senate passed a bill that combines tougher enforcement rules and border security with a guest worker program and a plan to give many of the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the country a path to U.S. citizenship.
The House-passed bill focuses solely on border security and enforcement. A solid group of House Republicans oppose the Senate bill, calling it an amnesty that rewards people who broke U.S. law. Many senators say they cannot accept the House's enforcement-only approach. |
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