Fox backs Bush’s alien proposal

MONTERREY, Mexico — Mexican President Vicente Fox yesterday urged the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to ensure jobs to Mexicans in America, saying he supports President Bush’s proposal to give millions of illegal immigrants in the United States legal status.

“We totally agree and are aware that the proposal should be broadly discussed [and] analyzed, particularly in the Congress of the United States,” Mr. Fox said during a joint press conference on the first day of the Special Summit of the Americas.

Mr. Fox said he hoped that the idea would “mature, and it should definitely be approved,” but did not expound on his recent call for the dissolution of borders from the Arctic Circle to the Rio Grande, so people in North America can work and live in the country of their choosing.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Fox said: “On the long term, this North American bloc can be the leading bloc on the world and be the most competitive bloc on the world by working together and, through that, be able to keep increasing the quality and the level of life of our citizens.”

Mr. Bush, who hasn’t put forth specific legislation for changing immigration law, said he laid out his principles because he thought “it was the right thing to do.”

“These workers are a benefit to my country,” Mr. Bush said. “These are honorable people that are in our country to fill jobs that others won’t take and also to get money to send back to their families.”

Mr. Fox, who openly opposed the war in Iraq, also praised the United States for ensuring that Iraq’s former dictator, Saddam Hussein, “will be taken to trial, to judgment,” apparently ending a perceived rift between the longtime friends.

“We fully support that, and we congratulate President Bush and the United States for that very important accomplishment, which is for the better of all nations … all people in the world [who] want to live in peace without terrorism,” Mr. Fox said.

Mr. Bush said he has discussed Iraq with Mr. Fox before and after the war.

“Vicente Fox is a good enough friend for him to be able to express his opinion to me without the loss of friendship,” Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Bush’s immigration proposal is certain to be received coolly by Congress, with some Democrats complaining that it doesn’t go far enough and some key Republicans saying it amounts to a broad amnesty program that they won’t support.

Mr. Bush rejected that accusation yesterday.

“This plan is not amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the automatic plan of citizenship,” Mr. Bush. “I oppose amnesty, because it encourages the violation of our laws and perpetuates illegal immigration.”

The immigration-reform plan would issue temporary worker cards to Mexicans so they could “come out of the shadows” of the underground economy in the United States and “travel back and forth between their home and the United States without fear of being denied re-entry into our country,” Mr. Bush said.

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