COMING TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU SOON!!
Posted on 09/06/2001 12:40:40 PM PDT by madrussian
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mexican President Vicente Fox (news - web sites), the first state visitor of the Bush presidency, challenged the United States on Wednesday to strike an agreement on immigration by year's end. President Bush (news - web sites) said ``there is no more important relationship'' than with Mexico but did not embrace Fox's ambitious deadline.
The public challenge stunned U.S. officials who have been trying to lower expectations for a deal on the complex and politically risky issue that could legalize millions of undocumented Mexicans. Even some Mexican officials said they had no notice that Fox would push for quick action.
The two-day state visit, an important political event to both Bush and Fox, began promptly at 9:30 a.m. EDT when a military band struck up a Sousa march and the two presidents strolled shoulder to shoulder onto the White House back lawn. Military honor guards stood stone-faced as their battle ribbons, jostled atop flag poles by a cool wind, whipped at their faces.
Bush, hoping to court Hispanic voters for his 2004 re-election bid, said Wednesday's formal welcoming ceremony, one-on-one Oval Office session, rare joint Cabinet meeting and state dinner - along with his and Fox's joint trip Thursday to Ohio - amounted to a ``recognition that the United States has no more important relationship in the world.''
With all the pageantry a president can muster, Bush welcomed Fox to what he called the ``Casa Blanca'' and said, ``We understand that our two nations must work together in a spirit of respect and common purpose to seize opportunities and tackle challenges on the issues that affect the lives of our citizens, including migration, the environment, drugs, crime, corruption and education.''
That included just a glancing reference to the issue that dominates U.S.-Mexican relations: What should be done with the 3 million or so illegal Mexican immigrants who want legal status in America, and millions more in Mexico who want to cross the 2,000-mile border? The president wants an undetermined number of illegal immigrants to become legal.
A joint statement being released Thursday as Bush and Fox tour a Hispanic community center in Toledo, Ohio, commits the pair to forging a ``realistic approach to migration'' that respects ``the human dignity of all migrants, regardless of their (legal) status.''
With a dozen anti-immigration protesters outside the White House gates, Bush and first lady Laura Bush threw Fox an intimate state dinner with an extraordinary finale of fireworks on the South Lawn.
Raising a glass of 7-Up, the teetotaling Bush toasted Fox ``friend to friend, partner to partner, neighbor to neighbor.'' Fox returned the compliment, calling Bush ``Jorge'' and someone he trusts to take action on the immigration problem.
Bush's trip to Mexico in February raised hopes in both countries that an agreement would come quickly, but the leaders have sounded more cautious in recent weeks as congressional conservatives raised objections.
On the eve of their meetings, Bush said the complexity of the issue bars a quick deal and acknowledged that he has ``a lot more selling to do'' in Congress. Fox said Sunday it would take four to six years to complete a comprehensive U.S.-Mexican immigration overhaul.
Flanked by Bush in front of the Truman Balcony, Fox seemed to set a more aggressive timetable.
``We must and we can reach an agreement on migration before the end of this very year which will allow us, before the end of our respective terms, to make sure that there are no Mexicans who have not entered this country legally in the United States and that those Mexicans who have come into the country do so with the proper documents,'' said Fox. His term ends in 2006.
Fox appeared to be calling for an agreement that would be ready for consideration by the respective legislatures of the two countries before the end of the year. But U.S. officials have said that details such as timetables and the numbers of Mexicans who would be eligible have not yet been broached.
Fox believes Mexicans in the United States are not being treated fairly. He says U.S laws should be amended so that migrants receive health, education and labor rights and can work without fear of deportation.
Several administration officials said afterward they would have preferred to avoid the added pressure of a public deadline. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is impossible to predict whether a comprehensive agreement can be reached this year, given the unease in Congress and fluidity of the talks.
Bush, asked whether he thought Fox's timetable was too ambitious, pretended not to understand the question and joked in Spanish, ``I can't hear.''
His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), said it would be nice to reach an agreement by year's end, but cautioned, ``The president shares the desire to do it quickly, but to get it right.'' Bush and Fox will release broad outlines of their immigration goals while touring a Hispanic community center in Toledo on Thursday.
Prodding Bush, House Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he hopes to pass a bill during Fox's visit that would extend by a year the deadline for illegal immigrants to apply for visas.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the congressional immigration reform caucus, said the prospects are not good for congressional approval of legislation that would legalize undocumented Mexican aliens.
People should not be rewarded who ``forget about American law, sneak into the country and avoid detection,'' he said.
Bush has acknowledged such concerns, but nonetheless says it would be in the nation's interest to match hardworking Mexicans with American employers.
Fox's remarks reflected the political pressures he faces at home to strike an agreement with Bush. He hopes to quiet critics in Mexico who say he promised much during his landmark election campaign and has delivered little.
I was making a point that advocates of illegal immigration profess their readiness to commit the same crime and that particular poster was the second one from whom I heard that. You took my post out of context and hence the misunderstanding.
illegal worker >>> legal worker >>> taxpayer
You advocate abolishing of immigration laws and opening the border. You advocate rewarding the criminals. You wrote that you'd break American laws. I am not confused.
My take -- as a black man -- is that no black American wants to go back into the fields. Been there, done that. But it's not just blacks, you know. I don't see many white people with the exception of immigrants from Europe taking the janitorial, fast food, or unskilled labor jobs where I live. Most of those folks are either Hispanic, Asian, or black.
I won't dispute that illegals largely do those jobs, as did immigrants from generations past. Here's the big diff with those from south of the border: by and large -- THIS IS NOT TO SAY ALL -- they don't view the United States as their new homeland, they view it as a workplace -- and it shows in the way that many resist assimilation and insist on what amounts to dual citizenship.
It doesn't hurt that the economies of the nations that immigrants journey from are such that they aspire to have an opportunity to work hard in America, whereas the native-born American too often waits for opportunity to knock before opening the door.
COMING TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU SOON!!
I personally have a tough time calling an illegal immigrant a criminal.
It seems that you go out of your way to prove that illegal immigration is NOT a crime. Care to explain your position? Or that Disney-like poem is supposed to be it?
I never said that it was it was included in the Bill of Rights or the Declaration of Independence. Try again.
Someone call the Thought Police, quick!
And no one has yet mentioned the free border routine that is coming when we go thru the free trade of the americas commonwealth government switch.....Amerika will be brought down, cause the weight of caring for the rest of the hemisphere will cause the ship to sink!
I never said YOU did, but you would be surprised how many times I have heard it quoted as if it was written by the same figures who authored "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..."
What YOU are doing is using it as if it has somehow guided immigration laws or is held up as a legal affirmation of American policy toward immigration. Neither description fits. It's just a poem. A good poem, but that's all it is, and that's only how seriously it should be taken.
Well I sure don't want any more mind-numb idiots voting for the DNC.
I was asking about your basis for opposing illegal immigration. I am already familiar with the anti- and pro- immigration arguments, particularly those made on FR. Am I correct in thinking that your objections are primarily related to the burden on taxpayers caused by illegal immigration?
I frankly fail to see the purpose of your asking this question so innocently.
Who, moi, playing an innocent?
It seems that you go out of your way to prove that illegal immigration is NOT a crime. Care to explain your position? Or that Disney-like poem is supposed to be it?
That poem is more than Disney fairy tale. If this country had not accepted my filthy ignorant peasant ancestors, I wouldn't be alive. I really don't think you grasp the significance of many people's immigrant roots.
Contrary to your suggestion, however, I do realize that we do not live in the nineteenth century. I do not believe that this country can currently sustain the mass waves of immigration that it did earlier in its history.
I have a lot of doubts about whether large scale deportation of Mexican illegals is a good idea. First, I think it would create much ill will on the other side of the border. It is not ideal for a very rich country to be bordered by a very poor country in which many people feel they have nothing to lose.
Second, deportation and extremely tight policing of the border would increase the federal police powers even more --and they already represent a threat to our liberty.
Lastly, no immigration policy will be effective until the root cause of the immigration is solved. Mexicans need to have a reason to want to live in Mexico. If you want to stick your head in the sand, and ignore this very obvious fact, go right ahead. But you are dreaming if you think deportation and border policing alone will solve the illegal immigration problem.
hardy har har! :)
No I am not. I posted it to madrussian as a reminder of an earlier discussion we had on another thread.
But I would say that the poem is representative of the feelings of many immigrant families who came here in the nineteenth century. I, for one, grew up with stories about my "poor potato farmer" ancestors from Ireland.
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