Mexico Wants Migrants on Bush Agenda

MEXICO CITY (AP) April 20, 2004 - Not long ago, while still settling as presidents of their respective countries, George W. Bush and Vicente Fox were giving off high hopes for a new deal to end the long-running dispute over migrant workers and legalize the status of undocumented Mexicans in the United States.

Then came Sept. 11, and things went into deep-freeze.

Now, the best Fox's government can hope for is to start talking again. The chance for that comes on Monday, when Secretary of State Colin Powell, new U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza and other Bush administration officials visit Mexico for two days of talks.

The obstacles remain formidable: Many U.S. legislators oppose legalizing the 3 million Mexicans living in the United States, the threat of an Iraq war threatens to sideline Mexico's problems again, relations between Bush and Fox have cooled, and looming over relations is a water dispute.

The place where these issues are discussed is the Binational Commission, set up a decade ago to deal with everything from farming and trade to customs, immigration and law enforcement.

This week's commission meeting "is an opportunity to make up for time we lost after the terrorist attacks,'' said Tarcisio Navarrete, head of the Mexican House's Foreign Relations Committee.

Lately Fox has become increasingly vocal in pressing for a temporary amnesty or new work-visa program for the Mexicans illegals.

During a meeting with Fox last month in Mexico, Bush said he shared Fox's concerns, but offered no indication of how or when he would address them. Powell suggested next year would be a good time.

Navarrete, a legislator from Fox's conservative National Action Party, said any sweeping agreement is still far off.

"Mexico should not be frustrated by a lack of progress. This won't happen overnight,'' he said. But the Binational Commission needs to be told "that this is a humanitarian concern that demands urgent attention.''

Navarrete said close to 350 Mexican migrants have died trying to cross the U.S. border illegally this year. "Both countries need to do more to protect those who are dying,'' he said.

Frank Sharry, director of the pro-migrant Washington advocacy group National Immigration Forum, said the commission meeting could be the Fox government's last chance before a possible war with Iraq puts Mexican concerns on hold again.

"Realistically, now is the time for the Mexicans to press this issue. It's after midterm elections ... it's long enough after Sept. 11 and they're well within their rights to press for progress,'' Sharry said.

Garza says he's open to a migration accord, but in the U.S. Congress, there's bipartisan suspicion of anything leading to permanent U.S. residency for temporary Mexican workers.

While Mexico pushes migration, the Americans will likely urge their Mexican counterparts to pay back nearly half a trillion gallons of Rio Grande water owed to south Texas farmers under a 1944 treaty.

The State Department sent Mexico a reminder last month, and the farmers claim the shortfall has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost crops since 1992.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda cites drought but says Mexico is on track to pay back the water over the next five years.

Mexico also hopes to use the talks to win back some of the influence it had in Washington just before Sept. 11, when Bush received Fox as his first state visitor and the two signed a friendship pact.

Fox, the most pro-U.S. president in decades, has since been accused at home of giving the Americans too much for too little.

Relations hit a low in August, when Texas executed a convicted Mexican cop-killer and Fox canceled a trip to Texas which would have included a stop at Bush's ranch.

Mexican officials hope Garza, Bush's friend and longtime political ally, is the key to putting Mexico back on Washington's radar screen.

Still, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington-based think tank, says Latin America, including Mexico, is likely to return to Bush's back burner.

In a report assessing U.S.-Latin American relations, the council concluded that "aside from photo-ops,'' meetings between Bush and Fox "have continuously failed to produce any significant changes.''