Illegal Immigration Dominates Meeting of U.S., Mexican Border Governors

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his counterparts from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico made stopping illegal immigration a central theme at their annual meeting Thursday with governors from Mexico’s border states.

The focus on illegal immigration at a gathering typically dominated by nonconfrontational topics such as boosting trade and cleaning up the environment underscored the increasing desire of American politicians to show that they are doing something to address the issue in an election year.

“We had some serious discussions in the private meeting. Border security issues were at the top of the list,” said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who has been touting tougher measures against illegal immigration as he campaigns for reelection.

However, even the ceremonial speeches by regional leaders from the two countries were marked by differences over how to make the border more secure, a politically volatile issue on both sides of the frontier.

“The immigration problem is not one that is born on our border,” said Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo of the Mexican state of Sonora. “What we need is to improve economic opportunities throughout our country.”

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, introduced a resolution calling for all 10 U.S. and Mexican border governors to fight criminality along the border, including drug smuggling and illegal immigration, instead of waiting for their federal governments to do the job.

At the same time, the resolution called for the governors to stand against the prolonged presence of the U.S. National Guard along the border, and said it was the responsibility of federal leaders in Mexico and the U.S. to address the root economic causes of illegal immigration.

Perry and Schwarzenegger also used the event to ask the federal government to continue increasing border security funding, saying that bolstering the law enforcement presence on the U.S. side is clearly showing results.

The annual conference of the four American and six Mexican governors -- from the states of Sonora, Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas -- who share the U.S.-Mexico border are typically sleepy affairs.

But this year’s event in the Texas capital, taking place Thursday and today, is somewhat different because of election-year politics and the nation’s renewed emphasis on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was greeted as a guest of honor during the opening ceremony inside the wood-paneled chambers of the Texas Senate, and he reiterated President Bush’s push to add 6,000 additional Border Patrol agents by 2008.

Chertoff called on the border governors to continue cooperating to stop illegal immigration.

“These groups try to operate in the shadows between our governments,” Chertoff said of human smugglers, adding, “By working together, we are seeing real progress in apprehending these men.”

Immediately afterward, Juan Bosco Marti, the director of North American relations in Mexico’s Foreign Ministry, sought to clarify that the Mexican government was acting to stop illegal immigration. But he also made clear that it believed the path to slowing illegal immigration was through economic improvements in his country, and he promoted building more ports of entry and other tools to increase trade.

“More bridges and fewer walls are needed,” he said.

Although the event was largely peaceful, the California Nurses Assn., one of the governor’s most dogged political opponents, protested a noon Schwarzenegger fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel. Meanwhile, Code Pink, the antiwar group, attempted to “arrest” all four American border governors, arguing they had tacitly supported the militarization of the border.

Perhaps the most awkward political moment Thursday came when Perry said he had spoken with Felipe Calderon and offered his support for the man he called the president-elect of Mexico.

Calderon’s opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, continues to challenge the results of the election, and some Mexican governors immediately sought to distance themselves from Perry’s embrace of Calderon.

Amid questions from Mexican journalists, Perry later said that he was merely following the customs of his own country, where it is common to pay respect to the candidate that officially garners the majority of the vote.