Mexico Tries to Spur Talks on Migration

Setting aside bitter differences over the war in Iraq, the United States and Mexico resumed cabinet-level contacts Thursday with an agreement to improve border security. But Mexico’s top law enforcement official used the encounter at this frontier crossing to revive another thorny issue -- how the United States treats undocumented Mexican migrants.

“The migration issue is one that cannot be left out of our discussions,” Interior Minister Santiago Creel told a joint news conference here with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. “Today more than ever it makes sense to put this topic forward as the first priority.”

The two men announced new steps in a year-old, $25-million “smart border” program that employs high-tech scanners and computerized databases to speed the flow of legal goods and travelers across the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexican frontier while trying to filter out terrorists, criminals and contraband.

But questions about Iraq and the fate of the estimated 4 million undocumented Mexicans who live and work in the United States dominated their public appearance here on a platform overlooking a noisy customs inspection yard for truck cargo crossing from Tijuana.

Ridge said he and his Mexican counterpart discussed migration briefly during more than three hours of talks that began Wednesday. He gave no sign that the Bush administration was ready to treat the issue with urgency and said it might take years to resolve.

The two countries began negotiations in 2001 on Mexican President Vicente Fox’s proposal to give legal status to the undocumented migrants and expand permanent visas and guest worker programs to ease the flow of other Mexicans into the United States. Within days, however, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks derailed those talks, turning President Bush’s attention from Mexico and cooling what had been a back-slapping friendship between two rancher-statesmen.

U.S.-Mexican relations sank deeper after resistance by Mexico and other members of the U.N. Security Council forced the United States last month to abandon plans to seek a vote in favor of authorizing force against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Fox was a vocal opponent of the war.

Once the war started, Mexico began mending fences, emphasizing a willingness to cooperate on security and trade. Watching its neighbor’s back during the assault on Iraq, Mexico mobilized 18,000 army and navy personnel and 12,000 federal police officers to guard borders, airports, seaports, U.S. embassies and consulates and communities with a large American presence.

Fox said Tuesday that he expected no lasting damage. “Today we are looking at the future,” he said in Mexico City. “We are keeping this bilateral relationship very intense.”

The meeting here was the first between cabinet officials of the two countries since January.

Ridge, under questioning by reporters, said Bush was “deeply disappointed” by Mexico’s stand on Iraq but added that the two neighbors were “friends forever.” Asked by a Mexican reporter whether Mexico would be punished, Ridge said no.

“You need to put it in the context of a family relationship or a strong friendship,” Ridge said. “It is possible to have differences of opinion that lead one or the other party to express disappointment. That does not translate to punitive action because those friends know there is a future that will include many more opportunities to work together.”

Under Thursday’s agreements, the two countries will this year open the first high-tech fast lane for U.S.-bound cargo, three such lanes for passenger vehicles and the first ever for pedestrians.

To be eligible for swift passage through laser scans at the border, travelers and cargo shippers must obtain U.S. security clearances. The officials promised to cut in half the four-month wait for such clearance for travelers. The cargo lane is planned for the crossing from Juarez to El Paso. Three so-called Sentri lanes for vehicles already exist -- two at the Tijuana-San Ysidro crossing and one from Tijuana to Otay Mesa. Three will be added for vehicles -- at San Ysidro, El Paso and Nogales, Ariz., along with the one for pedestrians, at San Ysidro.

The slow lanes also promise to get faster. U.S. officials said that by October they would begin installing laser scanners for the electronic cards that Mexican visa holders are required to display at the border.

The two cabinet officials toured border facilities here and in Tijuana, inspecting gamma ray scanners for truck cargo and a database used to register the passage to the United States of visa holders from 25 countries with high terrorism risks, from Afghanistan to Yemen. With security more a focus of U.S.-Mexico relations, Ridge and Creel have become the new point men. Ridge’s confirmation by Congress in January put him in charge of a department that consolidated several agencies covering border security; Creel has stepped out of the shadow of Jorge Castaneda, who resigned in January as Mexican foreign minister.

“These two guys work well together,” said U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, who sat in on their discussions. “Ridge is a decision-maker, and Creel has a similar style. He gets things done. The chemistry is good.”

Creel, mentioned as a potential presidential contender in 2006, told Ridge that Fox’s proposal to legalize undocumented Mexicans is in the interest of America’s security.

“It is absurd to think that the United States wants to achieve security inside its borders when it has 4 million people there without knowing who they are, what their names are, where they work, or where they are,” he told reporters Wednesday. Legalizing them, he said, would free law enforcement personnel to concentrate on terrorists.

Asked about that argument, Ridge said: “We know that this is a matter that cannot continue to exist unresolved. How we deal with the presence of men and women and families that were initially unlawful but have proven to be productive is one of the biggest challenges we have in our country.”

He pledged to work “in the months and years ahead to get a satisfactory answer to that problem” but emphasized that he was equally intent on enforcing the law to keep illegal migrants out of the country.