Posted on 03/19/2002 5:10:35 PM PST by Love America or move to ......
Immigration will be key topic when Bush, Fox meet Friday Mexico's ambassador says countries need to regain momentum
03/19/2002
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – Mexico's top diplomat in the United States said Monday that the upcoming meeting between President Vicente Fox of Mexico and President Bush will be a reunion aimed at "recuperating momentum" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which stalled high-level migration talks between the countries.
In an interview with reporters, Ambassador Juan José Bremer said the meeting between Mr. Fox and Mr. Bush on Friday at the U.N. Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, will include talks on immigration, border security and poverty.
"Six months after September 11th, we're restarting our negotiation discussions, and I think it's an important project that will continue having its weight in the bilateral relationship," Mr. Bremer said. "How far can we go? It's not for me to say."
A senior administration official echoed Mr. Bremer and said Mr. Bush wanted to "accelerate" the immigration talks.
"The agenda hasn't changed very much," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Migration is a very important topic for both countries."
Separately, one of the Washington's top immigration scholars called on both governments to use the upcoming meeting to move the immigration agenda forward.
Demetrios G. Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute, convened a high-level U.S.-Mexico migration panel a year ago to devise the framework for the current migration talks. On Monday, he called on both governments to consider adopting a four-point program.
The proposal calls for a registration program for the estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, a legalization program for those immigrants who register, a broad temporary worker program for new Mexican workers to help meet continued U.S. employer demand, and a new security arrangement along the U.S.-Mexico border.
If the Bush administration doesn't adopt a comprehensive approach and neglects to work closely with Mexico on the migration issue, it will learn another "lesson of unilateralism," Mr. Papademetriou said, referring to the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, or IRCA.
The act was designed to restrict immigration by combining amnesty for 2.8 million immigrants, most of them from Mexico, with tightened border controls, Mr. Papademetriou said. But by 1990, there were as many new undocumented immigrants as there were before 1986. "We were back to where we started," he said.
Staff writer G. Robert Hillman contributed to this report.
Mexico is truly pathetic.
"It makes no sense to give aid to countries that are corrupt because you know what happens? The money doesn't help the people, it helps an elite group of leaders," Bush said.
The president will take the message to the U.N. Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, where he will arrive Thursday night. He also will meet Andean leaders in Peru and Central American leaders in El Salvador before returning to Washington Sunday.
During his talks with world leaders at the conference, Bush will promote his initiative to help poor nations that respect human rights, root out corruption, open their markets, and have education and health care systems. [End Excerpt]
Showdown over U.S. Cuba policy nears --President Bush, Otto Reich and Sally Grooms Cowal.
I am a realist, I never deal in "what ifs". What we have is here and now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.