Bush vows to make U.S.-Mexico border more secure
President Bush rekindled a debate Monday in his own party, proposing a crackdown on illegal aliens at the Mexican border while allowing some undocumented immigrants to work in the United States.
“We are going to protect the border,” Bush vowed in a speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.
In his latest effort to shore up his conservative base, Bush insisted a crackdown would also prevent terrorists from entering the country. He wants 1,000 more border patrol guards, as well as cameras and listening devices, along the border.
But much to the displeasure of the right wing, Bush also wants a guest-worker program so some illegal immigrants can remain in the United States to fill jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and BIPAC, a fundraising arm of business and industry, supports efforts to maintain cheap labor.
“People in this debate must recognize that we will not be able to effectively enforce our immigration laws until we create a temporary worker program,” he said.
More: mercurynews.com
Bush, Fox Discuss Mexico Border Security
President Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico exchanged ideas Monday on how to stop violence and improve security along the two countries' mutual border, the White House said.
Press secretary Scott McClellan said that Bush telephoned Fox while traveling here to give a speech and said the pair "talked about working together" to improve conditions that have been a source of friction between the two countries.
McClellan told reporters that Bush has designated Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to talk to his counterpart in Mexico about the problem and said that Bush and Fox also talked
Bush to tackle immigration on Mexico border
President George W. Bush on Monday tackles the thorny problem of illegal immigration on the Mexico border with his own Republican Party split over whether undocumented workers already in the United States should be allowed to stay.
Fueled by fears of terrorists slipping into the country, escalating violence and drug smuggling, Americans have become increasingly worried about illegal immigration. More than three-quarters think the government is not doing enough to control the borders, according to a CBS News poll last month.
In Tucson, Arizona, on Monday and El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, Bush will focus
Lopez Vows to Make Mexico Self Sufficient in Fuels
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the frontrunner in presidential polls for more than two years, pledged to make Mexico self sufficient in natural gas and gasoline in three years by increasing spending on the energy industry.
``Within three years, it's our promise and goal stop importing natural gas and gasoline,'' Lopez Obrador said during a Mexico City business conference.
Lopez Obrador said the lack of new refineries is ``criminal'' and promised to modernize the country's energy industry. Mexico now imports gasoline and natural gas from the U.S.
The candidate from the Democratic
Mexico angrily vows to block proposed U.S. border wall
The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged Tuesday to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it.
Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government has taken out ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. It also is hiring an American public-relations firm to improve its image and counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration.
Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced the U.S. measures, passed by the House of
Mexico Calls for New Approach on Immigration Issue
Mexican President Vicente Fox says serious discussions and cooperation between the United States and Mexico, rather than reinforcing the entire border with a fence, is the way to organize orderly migration, while insuring security.
President Bush toured the American Southwest states of Arizona and New Mexico earlier this week to promote and explain what he called his "comprehensive immigration strategy."
The illegal immigration situation in these two states is so serious that the governors have declared statewide emergencies. The U.S. Congress is scheduled to vote on border enforcement legislation soon.
President Bush said
Walling out or walling in Mexico won’t work
Many supporters in the United States, plus their legislators, are desperately pushing for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the time has come to think about this a little more strategically.
After all, what is a wall?
Obviously walls enclose our homes and businesses, and make us feel secure. They also keep the unwanted out. Webster’s Dictionary takes it a little further: “A high thick masonry structure forming a long rampart or an enclosure chiefly for defense. A structure that serves to hold back pressure (as of water or sliding
Bush gets tough down Mexico way
The President of the United States, having noticed that the illegal-immigrant issue has rent asunder both the nation at large and his own core constituency, proposes now to dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, thereat to provide temporary backup to an overwhelmed Border Patrol in stanching the flow of interlopers currently interloping unchecked.
Millions of Americans approve and applaud, as they surely will also cheer the rest of the border-tightening plans Bush outlined in prime time last night: a bigger civilian Border Patrol to allow the troops to resume other duties,
Mexico opposes US plan to build more barriers along border
Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Wednesday that Mexico opposed the US plan to build more separation walls along the border between the two countries.
The plan will not help resolve the problem of illegal migration that bothers the two countries, Derbez told reporters.
The Mexican objection to the walls is not directed against the United States or President George W. Bush but rather the country's long-standing stance on migration, he said.
Mexico opposed walls along any borders, anywhere in the world, including the ones in Gaza, said the foreign
Garza says Bush is opposed to wall along Mexico border
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said Thursday that the Bush administration is against proposals to build a wall along the United States' entire southern border.
"The president is aware of the concerns of critics who would like to build a wall around the United States," Garza told a small group of foreign correspondents. "As the former governor of Texas, he knows that such proposals are both unrealistic and undesirable."
Some lawmakers have proposed building a wall from California to the Gulf of Mexico to stop the millions of undocumented workers who sneak
Dean Slams Bush's Policies on Mexico
Howard Dean traveled south of the border to meet with Mexico's presidential contenders Monday, and lashed out at the Bush administration's policies on Mexico.
Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, claimed President Bush "turned his back on Mexico'' after it refused to support the Iraq war.
The former Vermont governor told The Associated Press in an interview that "a strong Mexico and a strong Mexican economy fixes a lot of the problems between the two countries, particularly immigration and narcotics.''
"We ought to have a partnership with Mexico'' Dean said. "President Bush has lost ground
