Bush and Fox Broach Issue of Migration

President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday pledged a “full, mature and equitable partnership of prosperity,” heralding “a new day” in their two countries’ relations.

As a first step, the fledgling presidents launched formal negotiations to develop a broad framework for addressing the contentious issue of immigration-- including a possible “guest worker” program for temporary migrant workers.

The talks are to be headed by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, and by Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda and Interior Secretary Santiago Creel.

Their mandate, the presidents said at their shirt-sleeves summit at the Fox family ranch here in central Mexico, is to create “an orderly framework for migration that ensures humane treatment [and] legal security, and dignifies labor conditions.”

“I believe this is a great advancement on what we had before,” Fox said.

The Mexican president, who has said the ultimate goal should be an open border between the two countries, said, “Certainly, there is a new attitude, a new, much more positive way of seeing things, in dealing with migration.”

And Bush said to his Mexican audience: “I trust your president. He’s the kind of man you can look in the eye and you know he’s shooting straight with you.”

A senior Mexican official called the summit a “purely substantive meeting,” in which the two presidents delved into specifics on serious issues.

For Mexico, the official said, “the main point from our perspective is the conceptual breakthrough on immigration, that we now place this squarely on the U.S.-Mexican agenda. This is a huge change.”

But the talks here were somewhat overshadowed by news from the Middle East. On a day when Bush was selling amity south of the border on his first trip abroad as president, U.S. warplanes struck Iraqi radar installations near Baghdad.

Asked about the timing of those attacks, Bush defended his action as a “routine mission” to enforce the “no-fly” zones in the north and south of Iraq.

Fox declined to be drawn into the debate, saying tersely during a joint news conference, “I do not have a position or a statement on that topic.” Asked if the bombings detracted from the visit, Fox said, “I see no reason why we should connect one event with the other one.”

The two leaders said they spent considerable time Friday discussing energy issues, including California’s electricity shortage.

And in his public comments after their meeting, Bush demonstrated that he no longer views the energy crisis as a problem restricted to California, or even the West. “It is a hemispheric issue, and it needs to be elevated to the presidential level,” he said.

Bush said he and Fox discussed the possibility of creating “a common policy whereby no one takes advantage of the other.” The U.S. leader said a North American energy policy could help ease California’s crisis in part by making more electricity available from the Mexican state of Baja California.

“We did talk about power, the generation of power--the possibility as to whether or not in Baja, for example, more power could be added to the Western grid,” Bush said. “It’s an obvious opportunity, if possible.”

But the joint statement made clear that a series of obstacles must be addressed. Those include Mexican constitutional barriers to private investment in the energy sector and Mexico’s inability to meet its own energy needs.

Both leaders made clear that the goal of the meeting was to establish a basis for cooperation during their presidencies rather than to reach specific agreements. The men’s ease with each other was evident in their joint news conference after the formal talks, a relatively comfortable first trip abroad for the U.S. president.

“I want you to understand that we consider you a friend of Mexico, a friend of the Mexican people and a friend of mine,” Fox said.

Bush replied in passable Spanish, “It makes me feel that I am among family.”

On the issue of fighting drug trafficking, Bush declined to specify whether he would seek to exempt Mexico from the annual process in which the U.S. certifies foreign countries as cooperative. Mexicans consider the certification process an insulting interference in their domestic affairs.

But Bush noted that “there is a movement in the country to review the certification process” and added that he would bring home to Congress a message of confidence in Fox’s commitment to fight traffickers.

The migration issue is an extremely emotional one for Mexico, given the annual stream of young Mexicans who cross into the U.S. each year seeking work. More than 1.5 million Mexicans are arrested each year trying to cross illegally, and nearly 400 a year die in the attempt.

Fox has pushed for an integrated agreement on migration that would include an organized flow of authorized temporary workers into the United States and an effort to end abuses by migrant-smuggling syndicates.

Bush appeared to respond to that sentiment, saying, “We exchanged ideas about safe and orderly migration, a policy that respects individuals on both sides of the border.”

Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security advisor, said after the meeting that the two presidents “share the same goals. They believe that people need to be treated humanely. They believe that people need to be able to have the fruits of their labor, and they believe that the economic benefits to both countries need to be recognized.”

Bush had departed a rainy Washington before dawn, arriving in the city of Leon after a 4 1/2-hour flight. After a brief airport ceremony, Bush and Fox drove to the Fox family’s hacienda in San Cristobal, where Bush met the president’s mother, Mercedes Quesada, whom he kissed on the cheek.

Bush, by then tie-less, presented her with a shawl and a photograph of him and his wife, First Lady Laura Bush.

The two men then went to Fox’s nearby weekend home on the outskirts of San Cristobal, about 210 miles northwest of Mexico City. Before going inside, Bush and Fox greeted a throng of well-wishers, including many children.

At the ranch, both men went even more casual, and later appeared at their joint news conference in shirt sleeves. Many aides also went without ties, including Powell and Castaneda.