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Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2005
Fox: Trade and security, not migration, top summit agenda
BY LENNOX SAMUELS
The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - President Vicente Fox on Wednesday played down migration as a discussion topic for his summit next week with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, emphasizing instead border security and trade.

Asked whether an immigration deal might be signed Wednesday at the president's ranch in Crawford, Fox flatly said, "Absolutely not."

Immigration policy change has been a major theme of Fox's administration, but at a news conference with foreign reporters, he was cautious on the topic, saying that revising immigration law was a domestic matter for the United States.

Mexico "will put our thoughts in the hands of the United States government and President Bush, but we're not going to get involved in the selling of the proposal or the lobbying of the proposal," he said.

The Fox posture is designed to avoid rattling anti-immigration "xenophobes" in the United States, said German Vega, an immigration scholar at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.

"I think both men, Fox and Bush, but especially Fox, needed to take a step back and reassess their strategy," he said. "By saying less, he may accomplish more."

In Washington, administration officials have been emphasizing the summit's economic nature. Those monitoring the planning have cautioned against any dramatic breakthroughs on contentious issues with either Mexico or Canada.

"Security and prosperity go hand in hand," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan, indicating when he announced the summit that those issues in particular would top the agenda.

Fox said border security, which he called "a big challenge," would receive considerable attention in bilateral talks with Bush.

"Border security certainly is an issue of much importance to both of us, the United States and Mexico," he said.

He said Mexican officials are implementing various programs to secure a fast and efficient flow of people across the border, including efforts to dissuade Mexicans from crossing into the United States by creating jobs in Mexican border areas, in part through improving the maquiladora system.

"Practically all border cities are at full employment at this point in time," he said. "That's also part of the security on the border, to have this (process) where people can find a job on the Mexican side. A job better paid than it is in the rest of the country."

Fox added that authorities have no information about any terrorist activity along the border.

"We don't have any evidence or any indication either that terrorists from al-Qaida or from any other part of the world are coming into Mexico and going through to the United States," he said.

He described drug trafficking as "the largest challenge we have in relation to security in both countries."

"We work very closely together with all U.S. institutions that have to do with organized crime and drug trafficking," he said.

Regarding the economy, Fox said he intends at the summit to discuss the next steps to take with the North American Free Trade Agreement to increase competitiveness in North America and to cope with rising competition in "other blocks around the world."

Many in Mexico have expressed concern about the economic threat posed by China, which has been using its labor costs - even lower than those in Mexico - to siphon jobs away from Latin America.