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Mexico's Calderon Worried About Tougher U.S. Line on Immigration

September 25, 2006


President-elect Felipe Calderon expressed concern Monday about U.S. congressional votes in favor of building more fences along the border and clamping down on undocumented immigrants.

"We share the preoccupation of the (Mexican) foreign ministry in regard to the decisions that are being articulated in the United States relative to the construction of the border wall and greater restriction in the matter of immigration," Calderon said in a statement.

He commented after a meeting with Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez to review Mexico's international agenda and discuss how Calderon can advance the initiatives begun by fellow-conservative Vicente Fox.

Fox, who will hand over to Calderon Dec. 1 after a six-year term, saw his hopes of negotiating a generous migration pact with Washington evaporate after the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which shifted the Bush administration's focus from liberalizing immigration to bolstering border security.

Authorities estimate that more than 6 million undocumented Mexicans live in the United States.

Despite the failure to win any concessions from Washington, Derbez said Fox's administration has laid out a path that will allow Calderon to "continue working for a bilateral accord."

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill calling for the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fences along the border with Mexico. The Senate is set to take up the measure this week.

President George W. Bush, who wants to link tighter border security with a guest worker program and other immigrant-friendly proposals, has been unable to bring his Republican colleagues in Congress into line on the issue.

Though the Senate earlier backed legislation consistent with the president's approach, the House delayed negotiations on reconciling the bill coming out of the upper chamber with its own text, which called not only for a border barrier but for making illegal immigration a felony.

With Congress about to adjourn so members can campaign for the November mid-term elections, the Republican leadership in both chambers wants to pass a border-barrier bill to burnish the party's security credentials with voters.

Calderon said Monday that as president, he "will defend the rights of Mexicans abroad, especially in the United States."

His administration, he added, will also place "emphasis on a policy of cooperation that implies comprehensive and wide-ranging measures in the matter of development and which understands that the only solution to the immigration problem consists in generating job and development opportunities in Mexico."

The president-elect has previously said that he will urge the United States and Canada - Mexico's partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement - to support a plan for development and infrastructure construction in the Mexican regions with the highest rates of emigration.

In a related matter, Calderon's top foreign affairs adviser, Arturo Sarukhan, denied reports in the Mexican press that members of the president-elect's transition team have met recently with U.S. and Canadian officials to discuss Mexico's energy sector.

Sarukhan told reporters that he and Calderon economic adviser Ernesto Cordero traveled to Canada to "discuss the strengthening of the integration of North America" and not to "make shady deals" involving Mexico's oil and natural gas.

Mexico, a leading crude exporter and a crucial supplier to the United States, nationalized its oil industry more than 60 years ago.

While vowing that he has no plans to privatize state-owned petroleum giant Pemex, Calderon intends to push for legislation that would open the energy sector to private investment.