http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/18705.html

Fox rejects migration criticism
BY LENNOX SAMUELS
El Universal
Domingo 11 de junio de 2006
Miami Herald, página 1


Fox is focused on creating opportunities at home.

APODACA, Nuevo León - President Vicente Fox on Tuesday rejected U.S. criticism that Mexico is not doing enough to curb immigration to the United States, saying his government is focused on creating opportunities at home that will dissuade Mexicans from leaving.

"Our No. 1 commitment and priority is to build up jobs and opportunities in Mexico," Fox said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "We´re trying to build up a patrimony for our own people to stay here in Mexico."


He said he does not believe that U.S. President George W. Bush´s deployment of the National Guard to assist the U.S. Border Patrol amounts to "militarization" of the U.S.-Mexico border, and that he had been assured guardsmen would serve in a supporting role to the Border Patrol and would not unilaterally apprehend migrants.

But he added that he does not consider deployment of the Guard, along with proposed construction of border walls, "appropriate."

"It is not the way to treat a friend, a neighbor, or a partner," he said. "And I want to tell (the public) in the United States that we are a partner."

Mexico spends US$200 billion a year on U.S. goods and services, he said during a working tour of the state of Nuevo León.

In several appearances in Apodaca and Monterrey, Fox hit hard on the theme of creating jobs to keep Mexicans at home. In a speech to employees of Celéstica, a company that manufactures microchips and circuit boards, the president said "what Mexico wants is to have its people here."

The president cited Mexico´s strong economy, saying it was growing by 5.5 percent yearly and that the growth rate for March alone stood at 7 percent. He said Mexico is "narrowing the gap" with the U.S. interest rates, inflation and even the minimum wage, which he said is US$4 an hour along the border - "not far" off the U.S. rate of US$5.15.

"We´re on a pace for a million jobs created just this year," he said in the interview. "On the border, in maquiladoras on the Mexican side, there are 100,000 jobs available."

The government needs to better train and educate Mexicans so they can take those jobs, he added. "The challenge is to prepare our people to meet the jobs that are available."


"This is what we need," he said, "not walls and the National Guard, but intelligent, provocative ideas and programs.

"I never looked at migration as a problem. I look at it as an opportunity."