Mexican President Vicente Fox and his United States counterpart
George W. Bush are scheduled to meet in Mexican tourist resort of
Cancun on Wednesday, with migration top on their agenda.
The talk will take place on the sidelines of a three-way meeting
between the two and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their
bid to revitalize the 10-year-old North American Free Trade
Agreement, and is held against the backdrop that the US Senate is
discussing the migration policies passed by the House of
Representatives in December.
Fox, along with many US senators, have expressed their
opposition to the proposed law to drastically tighten US
immigration laws.
The bill, sponsored by US Republican legislator James
Sensenbrenner, will have the US government build a wall along the
US-Mexican border and will treat illegal immigrants in the US as
criminals.
Also in Mexico on Monday, speaking at a meeting named
"International Migration: the human dimension of globalization",
Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez said that focusing
exclusively on border security is inappropriate.
The human rights aspect "is and should be the international
community's priority in dealing with the migration phenomenon," he
said, adding Mexico is seeking solutions to this migration issue
with foreign ministers of 10 other nations.
Bush has been pushing for a guest worker program, as part of a
larger immigration reform, which he says will allow for greater
border security.
He told legislators on Monday that any new program must include
improved border security, stronger domestic controls and room for
temporary workers.
In 2005, Mexican migrants sent back to their home country some
US$20 billion, the second largest source of foreign exchange for
the country after crude oil sales, much more than tourism and
foreign investment.
It is reported that a large percentage of the estimated 11
million illegal immigrants in the United States are from
Mexico.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2006)
