Immigration a Bush Priority, Powell Says

U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told Mexican officials Tuesday that prospects for an overhaul of immigration rules had “improved significantly” and that President Bush would soon work with Congress on his proposal to give temporary work permits to millions of immigrants.

“The president is committed to making this a high priority in his second term,” Powell said after a meeting here among Cabinet officials of the two countries.

The annual session of the United States-Mexico Binational Commission produced several accords, including initiatives to boost private investment, educational opportunities, housing construction, rural development and environmental cleanup in Mexico.

Immigration, an issue that has eluded resolution for years, was again at the top of the agenda.

Mexican President Vicente Fox’s top foreign policy priority has been gaining legal status for the estimated 4 million undocumented Mexicans who work in the United States. Bush and Fox agreed in 2001 to push for reform, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks shifted Washington’s concern to border security.

Powell and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge voiced satisfaction Tuesday with Mexico’s cooperation in protecting its U.S. frontier from drug traffickers, criminals and terrorists.

“We are coming out of the 9/11 period and doing a better job of securing our border,” Powell said. That, along with Bush’s reelection, he said, would make the new Congress freer to pass the first major changes in immigration rules since 1986.

Fox, who met with both Cabinet delegations after their session, had said a day earlier that the time for reform was now. “We have done all the analysis, diagnostics and problem-solving possible,” Fox told a radio interviewer Monday. “There’s no reason to lose much time.”

“Immigration reform faces a difficult road through Congress, but without presidential leadership it will be an impossible road,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican whose temporary-worker bill is similar to the proposal later outlined by Bush in January. Bush’s plan would grant three-year work visas for immigrants to fill jobs Americans do not want.

Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, noted that Bush’s plan stalled after reaching Congress early this year. He predicted “it will suffer the same fate” if it is revived.

“The president must understand that without first securing our borders from the mass flow of illegal immigration, any guest-worker proposal is totally unworkable,” Tancredo said.

Powell cautioned Tuesday that it was unclear how the new Congress, which takes office in January, would deal with the issue. At a joint news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, he promised that the Bush administration would meet with congressional leaders to assess “the pace at which we can proceed with a temporary-worker program and how fast and how far we can move in what period of time.”

“We don’t want to over-promise,” Powell said.

Five U.S. Cabinet secretaries joined Powell for talks with their Mexican counterparts. Both sides described the meetings as productive and friendly, but American officials involved in the logistics had to contend with Mexican presidential politics. Interior Minister Santiago Creel, who aspires to succeed Fox, held a separate signing ceremony and news conference with Ridge rather than play second fiddle to Derbez, who outranks him.

Relations between the U.S. and Mexico hit a low last year because of Mexico’s opposition to the war in Iraq and the executions of Mexican convicts in the United States without their having access to Mexican consuls. But the climate is improving, and Mexico is making plans to play host to Bush for a state visit next year.

“Things are going well with Mexico,” Powell told reporters. “Public attitudes toward the United States have been improving.... And as our economy has rebounded, that of course has assisted the Mexican economy.”

Among the projects announced Tuesday was a major expansion of financing by the U.S. government’s Overseas Private Investment Corp. for American small businesses working in Mexico and an accord to remove discarded tires that pose environmental hazards on the Mexican side of the border.

Times staff writer Mary Curtius in Washington contributed to this report.