Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

6/6/01 News Report -- The Dallas Morning News

The United States and Mexico are poised to discuss an even more ambitious guest-worker program than previously envisioned, one that could offer workers freedom of movement in choosing jobs and the opportunity to join unions, sources close to the negotiations say.

Such an outcome would mollify concerns from U.S. labor unions and key Hispanic organizations over workplace rights and legal residency, two points that traditionally have posed a stumbling block to resolving the illegal immigration issue.

The two sides still are some distance from an agreement, the sources say. But they add that the talks, scheduled to continue Friday in Washington, D.C., illustrate how much the tone in discussions between Washington and Mexico City has changed and indicate that the sides are determined to overcome one of the thorniest issues separating the countries.

"We're beginning to see the initial dance steps coming from both sides," said one Washington source, a veteran of the immigration debate. "And the dance steps are different, as well as the approach and priorities. Yet nothing is etched in stone at this point."

Added a source in Mexico City close to the negotiations, "So far, we're very encouraged by the rhetoric coming from Washington."

A U.S. Justice Department official in Washington refused to comment on the negotiations, saying only, "Sounds like you're on the right track."

In Mexico City, Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment.

At the request of President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, officials from both countries have been holding high-level talks aimed at hammering out an agreement to impose order on the chaotic flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico to the United States, many of whom make an increasingly dangerous journey across the 2,000-mile-long border.

Last month, 16 undocumented immigrants died from dehydration while trying to cross the Arizona desert, an incident that prompted Pima County supervisors on Tuesday to consider setting up water stations along desert routes. The move, analysts say, shows a shift toward a more humane policy in dealing with undocumented immigrants.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaeda and Mexican Interior Secretary Santiago Creel are part of a working group that will attempt to iron out a joint proposal by late summer, in time for the state visit by Mr. Fox in September.

"They're trying to think outside the box on an issue that obviously benefits both countries," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, an expert on Mexico at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "The political will is there on the part of both presidents."

The talks come amid a growing realization by congressional leaders and U.S. employers that a "guest-worker" program is necessary to provide vital workers in agriculture and other service industries.

"Nothing we've seen so far puts the guest-worker concept on a new plane. They're all just rehashing the old bracero ideas that have been proven not to work," said Barbara Driscoll, a migration analyst and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "We haven't been able to trust the [U.S. and Mexican] governments to do this, but if they're proposing a program with freedom of movement and freedom to join unions, they're on the right track toward a new way of thinking about guest workers."

Sources close to the negotiations say the envisioned guest-worker program would surpass the current agreement between Mexico and Canada in scope and numbers. The Mexico-Canadian model is often lauded as a progressive example for other nations, but sources close to the U.S.-Mexican negotiations say that model is too narrow and limits workers to specific industries and regions.

Perhaps the central question of the talks, which will continue over the next several months, is the concept of "regularizing" workers who have entered the United States illegally. The Bush administration is adamant that any agreement not offer "amnesty" to such workers, and the Fox administration appears willing not to press the matter. But the Mexicans have made it clear that they want to "regularize" a burgeoning undocumented immigrant workforce that resides in every corner of the United States.

Mexican negotiators have suggested providing legal status to as many as 3 million Mexican workers, according to the sources, thus providing them with conveniences such as access to driver's licenses and Social Security cards, as well as protection from abuse by unscrupulous employers.

One sticking point in the discussions is whether guest workers should be allowed to apply their time spent working in the United States toward legal residency status - a prize now granted all legal immigrants.

"The devil is in the details," said Cecilia Muñoz, the vice president of policy for the influential National Council of La Raza who recently met with the U.S. team of negotiators.

"It's very important that the Bush administration understand that Latinos have some political clout. And it's important that we have input into this process, and it's important that we're satisfied with the result."

The efforts of both governments were applauded by Andrés Rozental, Mr. Fox's ambassador for special missions and the Mexican representative on a binational panel sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"I would hope this would be a much broader negotiation that would cover the whole of the United States and the whole of Mexico," he said, "one in which we will be able to identify where the surplus of labor is in Mexico and where the demand and scarcity of labor is in the United States."

U.S. government estimates put the number of undocumented Mexican immigrants crossing north last year at 150,000 to 200,000. A study released Tuesday by Mexico's Presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad shows that these immigrants are likely to send $10 billion in remittances to Mexico this year.

In the United States, they make up an undocumented agricultural workforce that comprises up to 80 percent of the laborers on some U.S. farms. "This tone in Washington and Mexico is long overdue," said Luis Torres of the Inter-American Institute on Migration Labor, "because it's no longer just the Southwest or California that are dealing with the issue, but every state, from Georgia to Maine to Iowa."