http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=14890

Mexico to keep pressing US on immigration despite delays


Mexico City.– The Mexican government said Friday that it will continue to urge Washington to enact a "comprehensive" immigration reform law and to not be deterred by a U.S. House of Representatives move that could delay the process.

Mexican presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar told a press conference that the government "will continue striving until the last day" to press Washington for an immigration overhaul that improves the lives of more than 11 million undocumented foreigners, most of whom hail from Mexico.

President Vicente Fox's administration, which will hand over power on Dec. 1 to the winner of the July 2 elections, hopes U.S.

lawmakers will act quickly to approve a compromise bill, although "he does not feel defeated or frustrated" by the delays in passing the legislation, said Aguilar.

He added that the Fox government's position remains the same and that it hopes that there is "still the chance that a space for negotiation opens up among the U.S. political forces."

"The possibility for an immigration accord would benefit the two countries and, above all, the citizens who are already in the United States illegally and those who could cross the border over the next few years," Fox's spokesman said.

Mexican analysts say the enactment of immigration overhaul on the terms that Mexico has proposed – the legalization of the status of undocumented immigrants and a guest worker program, among other changes – would represent a victory for Fox at the end of his six-year term.

President George W. Bush, who has urged lawmakers to quickly approve a comprehensive immigration bill, last month announced an initiative to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to the border. Those soldiers have assisted the Border Patrol in duties such as building additional fences along the 2,000-mile frontier.

Bush, however, has said the idea of fencing the entire border is impractical and has expressed support for a Senate bill that would put millions on a track toward legalization and create a guest-worker program.