Mexico Chief Asks Local Touch on Immigration

Mexico and the United States, instead of dealing with immigration policy almost entirely at the federal level, must consult more with local governments and labor unions as part of a renewed effort to bring order to the massive flow of people across the borders of the two countries, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari said Monday.

Proposals to have the Mexican and U.S. governments work directly with local governments and labor unions on the border-crossing problem have been debated by academics in both countries in the past and have been suggested as an alternative to the present immigration system by Jorge Bustamante, director of the Mexican Center for the Study of the Northern Border in Tijuana, a government agency.

But this was the first time that a senior Mexican political leader has embraced the approach. Under such a system, farmers in the United States presumably would be permitted to go into Mexican communities and work with local officials and labor unions in arranging for migrant workers to enter this country and work on American farms.

Complex Rules

Salinas, in Washington for a series of meetings on bilateral issues with President Bush and other Administration officials, noted that the thousands of Mexican migrant workers who cross the border--part of 22 million border crossings a year--now are subject to a series of immigration rules in both countries that compound an already complex situation.

He brought up the idea during an hourlong session with a small group of U.S. reporters at Blair House, the official guest house across the street from the White House, where he is staying during his Washington visit.

During the interview, Salinas also declared that the recent seizure of 20 tons of cocaine in Los Angeles shows that drug traffickers have been having great success smuggling the illegal drug through Mexico to the United States and that it demonstrates the need for closer cooperation between the two countries in the war on drugs.

“It worries me very much . . . because it shows that very much cocaine is passing through Mexico and too much is entering the U.S.,” he said. “That’s why I have decided we must strengthen cooperation. . . .”

Information on Drugs

Salinas said that the problem will be “one of the main topics that I will talk to the President and his Administration about--the strengthening of relations, cooperation on drug trafficking, especially with relation to information, because I have said that the responsibility of finding drug traffickers in Mexico is not solely within the Mexican means.”

But in answer to a question, he said that he cannot see Mexico ever agreeing to permit U.S. law enforcement agents to cross Mexico’s borders in “hot pursuit” of drug suspects. “No, that will never happen,” said Salinas, who is known to feel strongly that such a practice would threaten Mexico’s sovereignty.

Although stressing the need for changing the two countries’ systems for handling border crossings, Salinas said that the Mexican economy’s need to provide more jobs for Mexicans is another factor that figures heavily in discussions about ways to deal with the huge outflow of migrant workers.

Million Jobs Needed

Mexico needs to create a million new jobs a year and that is the goal he has set for next year, said Salinas, who is nearing the end of his first year of a six-year term.

He called for the United States to lower trade barriers on textiles, steel, automobiles and other products and said that free trade would increase employment substantially and provide “jobs for Mexicans in Mexico and not in the U.S.” He said that Mexico has unilaterally opened its markets and the United States should now lift its own trade barriers.

Salinas and Bush are expected to sign several agreements covering such subjects as border issues, expanded trade and investment, tourism and pollution control when they meet at the White House today.

Bernard Aronson, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, told reporters that both countries hope the agreements will be instrumental in “opening the Mexican market for investment.” But he declined to discuss details of the agreements.