Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

7/18/01 News Report -- San Francisco Chronicle

Stepping into a growing U.S. debate, Mexican President Vicente Fox edged closer yesterday to proposing a broad amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Speaking in Milwaukee at a convention of the National Council of La Raza, the main U.S. Latino lobbying group, Fox said that American immigration policies had failed and that many of the 3 million undocumented Mexicans north of the border should be granted residency.

Coming a day after the White House was forced by a storm of criticism to back away from a similar idea, Fox's words were a daring challenge to President Bush to break with the conservative wing of the Republican Party on the issue.

"The current immigration policies have failed because they ignore the reality of an integrated Mexican-U.S. labor market," Fox said to the gathering.

"It is time to get real. Instead of criminalizing labor migration, both countries should work together to regulate it based on common sense and the rule of law."

Fox -- who in the past has avoided demanding full legalization of illegal immigrants, long a hot-button issue among conservatives -- virtually endorsed it yesterday.

The Bush administration and Congress, he said, should "regularize the status of Mexican migrants already working and living in the United States."

"This will allow migrants who work hard, pay taxes and abide by the law to be treated equally and to travel freely," he said. "It will also allow employers to have a more stable workforce. There should be a clear and consistent path to permanent residence for those migrants who want, and are otherwise eligible, to do so."

Fox also outlined several points for a potential Mexican-American agreement:

• Exempting Mexico from U.S. quotas for work and immigrant visas.

• Establishing a guest worker program that uses temporary work visas.

• Allowing undocumented Mexicans to obtain driver's licenses and pay in- state tuition at public universities. (Bills to allow this are pending in the California Legislature.)

Fox's remarks yesterday brought renewed criticism of the Mexican leader and Bush as well.

"Fox's goal is not legalization of migrant flows between the two countries, but Mexico's conquest of the United States," said Glenn Spencer, president of American Patrol, a Los Angeles anti-immigration organization.

Spencer warned Bush against taking grass-roots conservatives for granted. "Bush's message to voters is: 'You don't have any place to go except me.' It's a clever political trick, which will blow up in his face. People are really riled up about this. He's going to get the political fight of his life."

The fall will be a hot debating season, predicted Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank.

"A lot of Republicans are going to say, 'Why split our party on this? Whatever we do, the Democrats are going to claim credit.'"