Thread: Democrats good for immigration changes - Mexico

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3855415a12,00.html

MEXICO CITY: Gains by Democrats in the US congressional elections may help promote more liberal immigration policies sought by Mexico, President Vicente Fox's spokesman has said.

Mexico has been deeply disappointed by President George W Bush's failure to convince his own House of Representatives Republicans to accept a guest worker programme that would allow millions of mostly Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States.

Instead, Republicans who controlled both the House and the Senate voted for a 1126km fence along part of the US-Mexican border to stem the huge flow of illegal immigrants.

That angered Mexico, which has more faith in the Democrats on immigration. In midterm elections on Tuesday, Democrats won control of the House and were near taking control of the Senate as vote counts continued in an outstanding race.

"We hope this new make-up of the US Congress can be a catalyst for the US government working toward a migration reform with the characteristics proposed by Mexico," Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar said.

Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes office on Dec. 1, meets Bush in Washington on Thursday and is expected to raise complaints about the fence, which the US president signed into law last month.

The fencing will run along parts of four southwestern states – California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Mexico and other US allies in Latin America feel Washington neglected them after the September 11, 2001, attacks that they said diverted US attention from the region toward the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said he hoped the midterm elections would force the United States to concentrate more on its southern neighbours.

"I hope this also obliges the refocus toward our region, toward our nation," Derbez said.

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