Posted on 03/30/2006 7:42:53 AM PST by conservativecorner
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Facing a tough battle to push immigration reform through U.S. Congress, President George W. Bush was likely to win support from President Vicente Fox at talks on Mexico's Caribbean coast on Thursday.
Fox will offer tighter border security and incentives to help bring illegal Mexican immigrants back home when the pair meet in the beach resort of Cancun, Mexican officials say.
The U.S. Senate began debating immigration reform on Wednesday and Republicans are split over whether to support an effort backed by Bush to create a guest worker program for millions of immigrants.
Conservatives in Bush's party reject that idea, instead seeking to erect a high-tech security fence along a third of the border and make illegal immigration a felony.
Fox, who for five years has failed to convince Washington to allow more Mexicans to work in the United States legally, is keen for one more push before he leaves office in December. His government worked with the Mexican Senate to produce a written document that recommends a crackdown on people smugglers, and housing and economic incentives to attract undocumented aliens to return to Mexico.
That may help Bush win over doubters in his party.
Fox will tell Bush the document is proof of Mexico's commitment to a safer border and to fighting illegal immigration, senior Mexican diplomat Geronimo Gutierrez said.
"It is important because it transmits a clear sense of shared responsibility on the part of Mexico," Gutierrez told journalists on Wednesday.
NO PROTESTS
Mexican police in full body armor and presidential guards with sniffer dogs mingled with tourists in bikinis in Cancun in a big security operation for the Bush visit.
But despite an increase in anti-U.S. feeling in Latin America in recent years, there were no signs of protesters in the resort, which is far from major Mexican cities and too expensive for most Mexicans to stay in.
Ships were forbidden from coming within a nautical mile of the white sandy shores of Cancun's hotel zone where the two presidents will meet. Normally busy marinas were almost empty.
Bush will visit the Mayan archeological site of Chichen Itza on Thursday morning before seeing Fox.
The talks are part of a three-way summit of North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, countries that includes new Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The premier, a conservative, said the Cancun talks would help build better relations with Washington after friction between Bush and former Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"I think the meeting is certainly an opportunity to get dialogue between our countries onto a more mature and productive wavelength," he said this week.
Martin complained last year that the United States was trying to dictate to him what topics he could discus in the campaign for Canada's January election.
Bush hopes to solve a long-simmering dispute with Canada over softwood lumber, but Canadian government officials said a deal was unlikely in Cancun.
Canada ships $6 billion in softwood lumber such as spruce, fir and pine to the United States each year. Washington has slapped duties on the imports, saying Ottawa's below-market logging rates represent an unfair subsidy. Canada denies the claims and accuses the United States of being protectionist.
(Additional reporting by Lorraine Orlandi and Randall Palmer)
That's actually good news. It makes the case that this is a big beautiful and expensive gift from the American taxpayers to the lazy-ass Mexican government that much easier to sell.
People are fed up with giving gifts to grifters.
Hey Jorge. We don't give a flying flip if some 3rd world noble agrees with you or not.
The only support I am waiting to hear is our President telling their President he will blow up, shock and awe .....oh wait I can't finish that sentence, never mind.
Forget I said anything or even thought about it......
LOL. I suppose Mexico will adhere to these commitments the same way they have respected the water rights agreements along the border. Besides, they are about to elect a little Hugo Chavez there and he will repudiate anything Fox does in this regard.
You have it!! That's it, Bush is IMPORTING POVERTY and damn proud of it.
Ewwww.........rofl but I will deny it.
Any concerns about that?
-PJ
These people have no idea what backlash they are going to face. It's one thing to demonstrate. It's a whole other ballgame to demonstrate with foreign flags.
That's called an invasion.
My concern is why it seems that everybody needing our support claims to supply us with 40% of our oil.
I've got big concerns about that. That's why I'm with the President on this. Someone said "Mexico is importing wealth and exporting welfare." This kind of thinking makes no sense to me. It's in America's interest for Mexico to become as wealthy as it can be, to raise the standard of living of all its citizens. As that happens, fewer Mexicans will want or need to move here.
Very nice platitudes.
Fox controls very little, if any, of Mexico's northern border.
The drug cartels are the ones really in control.
You only have to look at recent events in Nuevo Laredo to get the idea.
The ones with an IQ of 30 or less, anyway.
Apparently that is MOST of them.
what's mexico going to do with that oil? drink it?
the current socio-economic and political structure in mexico is wholly corrupt - that's why its ripe for election of a leftist candidate. its a nation of oil and narco billionaries, with abject poverty and the lack of economic opportunity for its citizens. you know what, if they elected someone who would break that up - maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Nope. Let 'em go full-blown socialist. It would put a major crimp in the elites' plans to merge the continent EU-style.
But if for some reason we did feel the need to open the doors further to legal immigration from Mexico, that's still no excuse for not securing the border against illegal entry, and for granting amnesty (to any degree) to illegals already here.
Right now, Morris says the Democrats oppose the wall because they want the Hispanic voter base, even if it hurts America in the long run to have unsecured borders. To stop the wall, Democrats are supporting legislation to make a felony out of being here illegally. This is what started the latest outrage.
Morris says that a wall is enough to satisfy Bush's conservative base, and that Fox would accept a wall if it has a gate in it to allow guest workers to travel back and forth freely.
-PJ
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