http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorest ... m&id=96156

Saturday, November 11, 2006 (Mexico City):


A day after meeting with US President George W Bush, Mexico's President-elect Felipe Calderon said he was optimistic Washington will push through a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

Calderon made the comments during a meeting with California's Republican Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is a strong supporter of a guest worker program.

Schwarzenegger, on a two-day trade mission to Mexico, was accompanied by California farmers who have complained a crackdown on immigration has caused them labor shortages.

During his visit, the governor said a planned US border wall is "an incomplete way" of solving illegal immigration and said both California and Mexico would benefit from legalizing workers.

Schwarzenegger also invited Calderon to visit California in the spring.

Calderon has called the US plan to build a new 1,125-kilometer fence along the border "deplorable" and compared it to the construction of the Berlin Wall.

On Friday, mayors from border cities in the Mexican state of Coahuila, signed a document denouncing the fences and declaring the border an area for union and solidarity.

"From El Paso to Brownsville, Texas, we're against building the wall," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said. "That's why we're here today to support our neighbors."

Piedras Negras Mayor Jesus Flores said border communities face many challenges that must be confronted by governments on both sides of the border. (AP)