Fox Backs Bush’s Reforms

Mexican President Vicente Fox gave wholehearted support Monday to President Bush’s proposed immigration reforms, setting aside previously expressed reservations about a plan that would offer temporary work permits to millions of illegal Mexican migrants in the U.S.

“This is what we want,” Fox said, beaming as he welcomed Bush to a summit of 34 Western Hemisphere leaders. “Those who have the direct benefit of this will recognize and acknowledge that, [under] this proposal, their labor rights and their human rights will be completely respected.”

After hearing details of the initiative from Bush, Fox said the proposal “in good measure satisfies” what Mexico had been lobbying for since he took office three years ago.

Standing at Fox’s side after an hourlong meeting that included about 25 minutes of speaking one-on-one, Bush praised Mexico for “shared values.”

Leaving behind a bitter quarrel over Iraq, he said that Fox “is a good enough friend” to have opposed the war “without the loss of friendship.”

“We have worked together to overcome many mutual challenges, and that work is yielding results,” Bush said. In a sign of the leaders’ renewed bonhomie, Bush invited Fox to visit his Texas ranch for two days starting March 5. The Mexican leader, who skipped a previous invitation to protest the 2002 execution of a convicted murderer in Texas, accepted.

Fox’s endorsement of the immigration plan was good news for Bush for two reasons. It could improve the president’s chances of getting congressional approval by swaying Latino leaders in the United States, many of whom fault the plan for not providing a direct pathway for illegal immigrants to become permanent U.S. citizens.

It also got Bush off to a good start for what might prove to be an otherwise contentious two-day Summit of the Americas with the increasingly assertive leaders of Latin America, a region where the U.S. leader and his free-market prescriptions are highly unpopular.

Bush came into office three years ago promising deep engagement in Latin America and was working closely with Fox on immigration reform when the attacks of Sept. 11 turned his focus to Afghanistan, Iraq and other areas. Since then, Bush’s scant attention to the immigration issue and to political crises in Argentina, Venezuela, Haiti and Colombia has been frustrating for the region’s leaders.

Many in Latin America blame increasing poverty and social dislocation on the kind of free-trade policies Bush is promoting. In his remarks, however, Bush argued that free trade brings prosperity as long as corruption doesn’t siphon it off. He announced that he had just signed a proclamation barring entry to the United States to any government official who is believed to have taken bribes or been engaged in other forms of corruption.

“All nations must prevail in the fight against corruption,” Bush told the leaders gathered in Monterrey’s Parque Fundidora, an arts and conference center built on the reclaimed site of a defunct steel foundry. “We must deny safe haven to corrupt officials and create a culture of transparency in the Americas.”

Bush aimed gentle criticism at three summit nations, saying, “Our unity and support of democratic institutions, constitutional processes and basic liberties gives hope and strength to those struggling to preserve their God-given rights, whether in Venezuela or Haiti or Bolivia.”

As the summit convened Monday evening, the left-leaning presidents of Brazil and Venezuela were resisting a U.S. proposal that the gathering reaffirm a decade-old commitment to create a free-trade zone from Alaska to Argentina by the end of next year. And a larger group of leaders was opposing Washington’s call to punish the region’s most corrupt governments by barring them from meetings of the Organization of American States.

Most of Mexico’s attention focused on Bush’s immigration plan, which was outlined in a White House speech Wednesday. It would allow as many as 12 million illegal immigrants working in the United States to obtain renewable three-year visas as long as they can prove that they are employed, but it rejects a sweeping “amnesty” or path to citizenship.

Because more than half the people who might benefit are Mexicans, the president had hoped for strong support from Fox.

The Mexican leader’s initial reaction last week was ambivalent. He called the plan “an important first step” but “less than what we had hoped.” His hesitation reflected criticism in Mexico and the United States that the plan would create a permanent “underclass” of documented migrants who could be exploited and eventually expelled from the United States when their visas expired.

Although many Mexicans were pleased that Bush had embraced their country’s top foreign policy priority, some commentators dismissed the plan as a long-shot election-year gambit to woo Latino voters.

A joint news conference after Bush’s meeting with Fox gave the U.S. leader a platform from which to defend his plan directly to Mexicans on television.

“There is a deep human desire for a mother or a father to provide for his or her family,” Bush said, “and that’s how I view the motivations of good, decent Mexican citizens working in our country.”

“Yes, there’s politics involved,” he acknowledged, “and there will be politics probably involved in whether or not it passes Congress. But the reason I proposed the initiative is because it is the right thing for America to do.” Bush said his plan envisioned that most migrant workers would go home eventually. He outlined financial incentives in his plan -- such as credits in their home countries’ retirement systems -- that would encourage them to do so.

Fox has put himself at odds with Latino leaders in the U.S. by echoing Bush’s emphasis on temporary status for migrant workers. “These workers are not going to become American citizens, nor do they want U.S. citizenship,” he said last week. “They want to have their rights respected, to get good pay for their work and to be able to visit their families in Mexico.”

Agustin Gutierrez Canet, Fox’s spokesman, said Monday that the Mexican leader set aside his reservations about Bush’s plan to help its fortunes in Congress.

“This doesn’t mean that he retracts his evaluation of the plan’s limitations,” Gutierrez said. “But he knows that it is time to underline its positive aspects. Americans are the ones who must debate this plan -- labor unions, employers, the Mexican-American community. They should do that without interference from us.

“From this moment on, Mexico is just watching,” he said.

Fox portrayed Bush’s plan as one that evolved from their conversations on immigration dating back to their days as the governors of Texas and the Mexican state of Guanajuato. What Congress does with it, he added, “is a sovereign matter of the United States.”

The Mexican leader was as effusive in private with Bush as he was later in public, calling the plan “a courageous step forward,” Gutierrez said. As Bush explained the details, Fox asked how many times a migrant worker could renew a three-year visa. “That depends on the availability of workers,” Bush replied, according to the Mexican spokesman.

Though Fox’s opposition would have destroyed the Bush plan’s chance to gain credibility with U.S. Latinos, his approval is unlikely to create a groundswell of support.

“It might sway some, but not all,” said Gabriela Lemus, policy director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the country.

LULAC has decided to work with the White House to shape a policy more acceptable to U.S. Latino activists. “Fox and U.S. Latinos may not have the same perception,” Lemus said.

A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released Monday found that 55% of Americans oppose Bush’s proposal, while 42% favor it. The nationwide poll of 1,033 adults was taken after Bush announced the plan. By a 2-1 margin, respondents said immigrants hurt the U.S. economy by driving down wages. It found that opposition to aiding undocumented citizens had grown from 67% in August 2001 to 74% now. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

At the summit, Bush reserved his harshest comments for Cuba and its leader, Fidel Castro, who has been excluded from the summit since its inception because he has refused to embrace democracy.

“We must continue to stand with the brave people of Cuba, who for nearly half a century have endured tyrannies and repression,” Bush said. “The spirit of liberty still thrives,” he added, “even in the darkest corners of Castro’s prisons.”

The summit is being held amid tight security in this industrial city, whose smog obscured the outlines of the Sierra Madre mountains. Gun-toting police encircled Parque Fundidora, the site of most of the events.

Times staff writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.