Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

For the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, American and Mexican Cabinet officials will meet today in Washington to resume talks on one of the most critical issues facing U.S.-Mexico relations: immigration reform.

Few believe that the new round of talks will approach the scope or enthusiasm of the dialogue that began with Mexican President Vicente Fox and President George W. Bush just days before terrorists hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But the discussions mark a turning point that could help drive several pieces of legislation already under way in Congress, including plans to give farm workers temporary visas and grant amnesty to tens of thousands of undocumented workers and college-bound children of illegal immigrants.

Some U.S. employers who rely on Mexican labor are cautiously optimistic.

"I do think that Bush has a sincere desire to address this issue, but I don't think it's going to move as quickly as Fox would like," said John Gay, a vice president with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a national trade group based in Washington.

But the latest talks, some political observers believe, will be more symbolic than substantive at a time when Bush is seeking re-election and Fox is trying to bolster his popularity midway through his term.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Bush administration officials have repeated their commitment to immigration issues but have cautioned "not to raise expectations" for an accord, a State Department official said at a media briefing Monday.

Hopes are up

"The Mexicans are overestimating this opening, thinking that this is going to lead to a real resumption of real discussions," said Demetrios Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. "And the White House is playing it down because it has not made up its mind that this is a good political issue."

Bush and Fox met briefly last month in Bangkok at an international economic summit and later announced that they would resume their discussion during Wednesday's meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission, made up of nine U.S. Cabinet secretaries and eight of their Mexican counterparts.

Immigration is a crucial issue for the United States and Mexico. The U.S. trades $240 billion annually with its southern neighbor and Mexican workers -- from lettuce growers to strawberry pickers -- form the backbone of the American agriculture industry. An estimated 8 million to 10 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, many of them Mexicans who send money to their families back home.

Those who advocate tighter immigration policy hope the Bush-Fox talks will crack down on illegal immigration and lead to tougher security at the border.

"I think that Mexico has done a good job pressing for its best interest. But the U.S. has to ask itself: What's in it for us?" said David Ray, spokesman for FAIR, or the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in Washington. "Mexico is asking for unfettered access to every job in America, and it's not cooperating on border security."

In his talks with Fox before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush made clear his support for the creation of a guest-worker program while remaining opposed to blanket amnesty. That dialogue "transformed the immigration debate from how do we repress it to how do we regulate it," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

Key legislation

But the real work, Sharry said, is now being hammered out with bipartisan support in Congress with three key pieces of immigration legislation:.

• The DREAM Act would give legal and permanent status to tens of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, recently passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting a full vote by the Senate.
• In September, Democratic and Republican lawmakers jointly proposed legislation that would allow 500,000 undocumented farm workers to become legal U.S. residents. The bill is awaiting a vote in the judiciary committee.
• In the summer, Republican lawmakers, U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe and Sen. John McCain, all of Arizona, proposed creating a guest-worker program that would give temporary visas to seasonal farm workers who live in Mexico but sometimes work in the United States. The bill would also allow some undocumented workers to become legal residents. The bill is waiting for a hearing before the House subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims.

"The message is we're friends," said Alcazar, former head of Mexico's border control agency. "Things may not be smooth all the time, but we have the capacity and the will to solve difficult problems."