Mexico’s Fox says U.S. needs immigration reform

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Vicente Fox said
on Tuesday that major immigration reform was in the United
States’ own interest despite tough opposition from
conservatives inside the U.S. Congress.

Speaking after President George W. Bush promised tighter
security on the border with Mexico, Fox refused to write off
the chances of U.S. reform benefiting millions of Mexican
workers and said he would continue to fight for it.

“We are still optimistic that next year we can finalize
what we have been working on for a good number of years,
reaching an agreement and the U.S. Congress approving the
initiatives that are there,” Fox told reporters.

“If we haven’t reached a complete resolution up until now,
that only encourages us to continue struggling, trying to
convince people of the benefits of a migration deal, which is
greatly in the interests of the United States and Mexico.”

Fox said a bill put forward by Arizona Republican Sen. John
McCain and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy goes a
long way toward resolving the problem.

The bill would allow some of the estimated 10 million to 12
million illegal immigrants in the United States to get legal
jobs and eventual citizenship. Most of them are Mexican.

Bush is proposing a more modest temporary guest worker
program to allow immigrants to register and work for up to six
years. They would then be required to return to their home
countries for a year to apply for a new U.S. work permit.

But Bush faces criticism from within his own Republican
Party, where many believe the program would reward lawbreakers
by giving them a “backdoor amnesty.”

Bush, who is on a two-day swing in the border area to
promote his plan to overhaul U.S. immigration laws, has vowed
to tighten security along the Mexican border with more agents
and new technology like the use of unmanned flying drones.

Both Bush and Fox say legalizing the status of migrant
workers would help improve border security by bringing illegal
immigrants out of the shadows and allowing the government to
better target real security threats.

The two men were close allies early in their presidencies
and vowed to reach a deal on immigration. But the partnership
has been strained by Mexico’s opposition to the U.S-led war in
Iraq and a surge in drugs violence along the shared border.