Posted on 03/30/2006 11:38:15 AM PST by Icelander
By Steve Holland and Randall Palmer
CHICHEN ITZA, Mexico, March 30 (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox played tour guide to U.S. President George W. Bush at ancient Mayan ruins on Thursday before holding talks to urge him to push through long-sought U.S. immigration reform.
Hosting a North American summit, Fox planned to offer tighter border controls and incentives to lure some illegal immigrants home, a pledge meant to help Bush convince a skeptical Congress to let more Mexicans work legally in the United States.
Bush and Fox, joined by new Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at Mexico's rowdy beach resort of Cancun, kicked off with a visit to the nearby 1,500-year-old pyramid complex at Chichen Itza, where some archeologists believe human sacrifices took place.
It was a rare sightseeing detour for Bush, who usually keeps to a tight diplomatic schedule, and raised speculation he was trying to revive a back-slapping relationship with Fox that saw them dubbed "the two amigos" at the start of their administrations.
Chichen Itza, a symbol of Mexico's status as the center of ancient Indian empires before the Spanish conquest, was placed under security lockdown for the visit by the three leaders.
Rifle-toting federal police in riot gear scuffled briefly with 30 Mayan handicraft sellers bearing signs that said "Bush, go home" and complaining of being barred from the site, and a handful of anti-globalization demonstrators.
The summit marked Bush and Fox's first meeting in a year, and immigration topped the agenda.
"This is a good start to a very important series of discussions," said Bush after touring the hot, dusty ruins.
The U.S. Senate opened debate on Wednesday with Republicans split on whether to back Bush's call for sweeping reforms to create a guest worker program and put some of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship.
Conservatives in Bush's party, normally his allies, reject that as a form of amnesty and seek instead to erect a fence along a third of the U.S.-Mexico border and make illegal immigration a felony. The issue has brought out thousands of mostly Hispanic protesters in major U.S. cities.
NEW TEST FOR BUSH
With his job approval ratings at a low point, immigration is a new test of Bush's political strength at a time when his second term has been beset by woes.
Fox, who has failed for five years to convince Washington to let more Mexicans get jobs in the United States legally, is making one more push before leaving office in December.
His government worked with the Mexican Senate to produce a written document that recommends a crackdown on people smugglers as well as housing and economic incentives to attract undocumented immigrants into returning to Mexico.
That may help Bush win over some doubters in his party, but opponents of his approach will demand decisive action by Mexico, which accounts for more than half of all illegal immigrants in the United States.
Fox will tell Bush the document shows Mexico's "sense of shared responsibility", diplomat Geronimo Gutierrez said.
Mexican migrants in the United States sent about $20 billion home to their families last year, the country's second largest source of hard currency after oil revenues.
Mexicans once had high hopes for Bush, who took office promising to make America's southern neighbor a priority but pushed the region to the back burner after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In Cancun, police and sniffer dogs mingled with U.S. and European college students on spring vacations. Crowds were smaller this year with many hotels still closed after last October's Hurricane Wilma.
Harper, a conservative, said this week the Cancun summit would help build better relations with Washington after friction between Bush and former Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Bush hopes to solve a dispute with Canada over softwood lumber, but Canadian officials said a deal was unlikely in Cancun. Canada ships $6 billion in softwood lumber to the United States each year.
Washington has slapped duties on the imports, saying Ottawa unfairly subsidizes logging. Canada denies the claims and accuses the United States of being protectionist.
All this stuff Bush did, and yet according to your earlier posts, he has almost no power. I wonder which it is?
Bush has been as pro u.s as your going to get.
Bush is the head of the law enforcement branch.
He has done NOTHING to uphold the law.
Well he COULD stop insulting us by referring to "Jobs Americans Will Not Doo." That infuriates many of us because it's a LIE!
Hey, how do you like the work your buddy Specter is doing since he got the endorsements from your pimps Santorum and Bush?
Stockholm Syndrome?
did anybody do their homework on this immigration thing. Well I did and guess where the money came from for all the big rallies. None other than money bags new dictator of the demo party himself George Soros and his honey in money, you guessed it, Theresa Heinz herself. Now why would those two money bags be on the same money bag .To get Bush on something. Don't be fooled , I thought the freepers were smart enough to follow the money. So i did it for you.
I didn't. And the electoral College makes it an irrelevant act for both of us.
You need to read up on this, you're defending a policy that is meant to eventually destroy the sovereignty of this country:
CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada [Bye Bye USA]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1444055/posts
"The CFR document calls for creating a "North American preference" so that employers can recruit low-paid workers from anywhere in North America. No longer will illegal aliens have to be smuggled across the border; employers can openly recruit foreigners willing to work for a fraction of U.S. wages.
"Just to make sure that bringing cheap labor from Mexico is an essential part of the plan, the CFR document calls for "a seamless North American market" and for "the extension of full labor mobility to Mexico."
"Here's another handout included in the plan. U.S. taxpayers are supposed to create a major fund to finance 60,000 Mexican students to study in U.S. colleges."
Oh yeah, that open borders thing is a one way deal only. Well, I should say open for their people, open for our dollars. If we want to come down and spend them in person, fine. To live, work, and own property? Fuggedaboutit. Until Mexico is recognized as the socialist dung-hole that it is, the very NOTION of our FREE REPUBLIC uniting or integrating, or whatevertheheck they want to call it is repugnant. Disgraceful.
I can't stand Specter's politics but a real republican had no shot of ever getting elected in Pennsylvania's enviornment in 04. No way could a real conservative ever get elected with the massive turnout in philly.
It was either Specter or that rat Hoeffel.
If it was ohio and Bush and santorum had backed a rino over a conservative that would have been different.
So we have Soros trying to tear the country apart from one direction and Bush trying from another. Man, too bad we can't bottle and sell what makes us sooo damned popular.
See, his wilful neglect of his doodie to enforce the border is probably impeachable. Even the MSM won't touch that though.
It's much worse than that! Tancredo said the other night that those 30 million will be the anchors, and they can of course bring in other family members. He said we're talking about 100 million people, if each of them brings in just 2 or 3.
How can we ever assimilate that many in a short period of time?
He/she's probably some intern or Poli sci major trying out for a job. You would think though that he would have a working definition of what the functions of the Executive Branch are.
Everybody in DC needs to get a copy of the Constitution, and brush up on it. We are being invaded, and it's unconstitutional, if only our "leaders" would do their duty and stop it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article 1. Section 8. Clause 15.
[The Congress shall have Power]
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union,
suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
and
Article 4. Section 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican
Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;
I have no doubt. Needs an education though.
"Mi casa blanco, es su casa blanco"..
sw
Time for the real conservatives on FR,
be it Republicans, Independents or Democrats
(like Zell Miller and John O'Neill) to band together
and oust the looney left and RINO's
The "Politically Correct RINO's" on FR are the same group
who "swore"
klintoon, hitlery, hanoi kerry, sanbdi ber(bur)glar, al bore, jane beno,
would be prosecuted for
pardongate, chinagate, the bribes in upstate NY in the 2000 NY Senate race, waco, etc, etc,
"when" the "time was right".
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