Bush Renews Support for Immigration Reform
By JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 21, 2004; 9:47 AM
SANTIAGO, Chile - President Bush renewed his support Sunday for changes to U.S. immigration law that would allow undocumented laborers to work legally, but stopped short of pledging to Mexican President Vicente Fox that he would push for enaction of the nearly year-old proposal.
Bush made plain that terrorism was his top concern when it came to immigration issues.
"I explained to the president that we share a mutual concern to make sure our border is secure," Bush said after meeting with Fox on the sidelines of an economic summit here. "One way to make sure the border is secure is to have reasonable immigration policies. I assured him that we want people from Mexico treated with respect and dignity."
Sitting next to Fox for brief remarks to reporters, Bush did not say how he would press for the reforms, which he first proposed in January. The Republican-controlled Congress did not move on his proposal this year.
"I told President Fox that I had campaigned on this issue," Bush said, although he gave the proposal - unpopular with his conservative base - a very low profile in his re-election campaign. He mentioned it infrequently, mostly early on in the race, in Southwestern border states or before Hispanic audiences where advisers believed it could give him a boost.
In the session with journalists, Fox did not raise the immigration reform issue specifically, instead talking about his commitment to create jobs in Mexico that would help solve the problem from his side of the border. He did suggest further talks in Washington, hinting he would seek "some form of agreement between the two countries" on the matter.
Fox said afterward he expected meet with Bush in Washington this February or March to discuss migration and trade.
Asked on CNN whether Bush had promised to move the immigration legislation forward, Fox said: "What I got, and very firmly, is his will, his will to attend this issue."
While the administration said the temporary worker initiative would be a legislative priority next year, Bush did not set a deadline for getting it passed.
Bush's plan would allow undocumented workers to get visas to work legally, but the visas would be only temporary and provide no path to citizenship - an approach that Mexican officials have signaled they would embrace, even if reluctantly.
Bush and Fox avoided talking about subjects where they differ, such as Iraq and Cuba, administration officials said.
With the meeting with Fox, followed by a state visit with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos later Sunday and a brief stop in Colombia on Monday, Bush is aiming to dispel the perception of U.S. neglect of Latin America and burnish an American reputation damaged by the Iraq war. It's a second-term diplomatic offensive in the region akin to his recent courting of Europe.
The high-profile meetings with the Chilean leader are Bush's Exhibit A for how free trade can benefit two countries, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The two countries signed a free-trade pact last year. That could be helpful as Bush pushes for forward movement on a hemisphere-wide accord, resisted by countries such as Brazil and Venezuela.
The Colombia visit, and a brief "pull-aside" conversation with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo during the 21-nation Asian-Pacific economic summit, also could help the president focus on lowering trade barriers. The United States is in the process of negotiating an Andean free-trade pact covering those two nations as well as Ecuador.
Mostly, the several hours of meetings Monday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative whose war against narcoterrorists and leftist rebels has received major funding from the United States, allows Bush to make a very visible statement about the U.S. commitment to fighting terrorism. It also was meant to highlight American contributions that have helped to bring some stability to a country ravaged by decades of guerrilla war, the official said.
"We put a lot of political support into Uribe," the official said. "We want to underscore that commitment and show that this is something that, number one, is paying big dividends for the American people, it's paying big dividends for the Colombian people."
But turning around the U.S. reputation in South America will not be easy.
The Iraq war is deeply unpopular in Latin America. The administration's commitment to open, freer economies is viewed by some as an unwelcome dictate from Washington. And there is a feeling that the needs of the Western Hemisphere have been neglected by the Bush administration.
