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| US, Mexican Presidents to Meet on Migration |
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Mexican President Vicente Fox and his United States counterpart George W. Bush are scheduled to meet in Mexican tourist resort of Cancun on Wednesday, with migration top on their agenda. The talk will take place on the sidelines of a three-way meeting between the two and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their bid to revitalize the 10-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, and is held against the backdrop that the US Senate is discussing the migration policies passed by the House of Representatives in December. Fox, along with many US senators, have expressed their opposition to the proposed law to drastically tighten US immigration laws. The bill, sponsored by US Republican legislator James Sensenbrenner, will have the US government build a wall along the US-Mexican border and will treat illegal immigrants in the US as criminals. Also in Mexico on Monday, speaking at a meeting named "International Migration: the human dimension of globalization", Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez said that focusing exclusively on border security is inappropriate. The human rights aspect "is and should be the international community's priority in dealing with the migration phenomenon," he said, adding Mexico is seeking solutions to this migration issue with foreign ministers of 10 other nations. Bush has been pushing for a guest worker program, as part of a larger immigration reform, which he says will allow for greater border security. He told legislators on Monday that any new program must include improved border security, stronger domestic controls and room for temporary workers. In 2005, Mexican migrants sent back to their home country some US$20 billion, the second largest source of foreign exchange for the country after crude oil sales, much more than tourism and foreign investment. It is reported that a large percentage of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. (Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2006) |
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