Businesses Urged to Give Mexico Aid

A top deputy to Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday asked Orange County business leaders to help fund a binational program designed to stave off emigration to the United States.

Juan Hernandez, coordinator of the Presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad, encouraged a group of 50 businesspeople at a Cypress meeting to help fund infrastructure projects in Mexico’s poorest regions.

Hernandez said many Mexicans come to the United States because they can’t make a living in their native land. There are about 23 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States, including 4 million who are in the country illegally, he said.

Programs that promote jobs, health and education in his homeland could help stop the emigration, Hernandez said.

While migrants send an estimated $8.5 billion annually to their families in Mexico, the Fox administration has made efforts to promote initiatives that would encourage some to stay home.

Fox and President Bush developed the Partnership for Prosperity project in March with the idea of creating greater economic stability in Mexico.

Hernandez’s office has identified 1,030 projects to be funded, including hospitals, roads and sports facilities in poor regions.

Greg Watkins of Newport Beach-based Watkins/Associates told Hernandez he is interested in assisting.

Watkins also hopes he can cut a deal with Mexico that would enable him to complete a $6-billion port project in Colima state.

“I’m not shy to ask you for money,” Hernandez told Watkins and the others. But more importantly, he said, “I’m interested in getting you involved. I want you to come down and I want you to see these communities.”

Hernandez spends as many as three days a week in the United States promoting the effort. Since beginning the partnership three months ago, he said he has received pledges totaling $70 million from donors that include individuals and major U.S. corporations.