Bush Proposes New Aid to Mexico
By: Mike Allen
The Washington Post, March 20, 2002
President Bush plans to direct $30 million to poor
areas of Mexico over the next year in an effort to discourage illegal
immigration by strengthening businesses there, administration officials
said yesterday.
Bush will announce the plan in Mexico as part of a
four-day Latin America trip that will begin Thursday. He had resisted
earlier requests from Mexican President Vicente Fox for massive assistance
to parts of his country that have struggled even as the border region
boomed after the 1993 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Some authorities on Mexico, citing a World Bank
estimate that the country needs $20 billion a year in new infrastructure
for 10 years, said Bush's plan was too small to stem immigration. But
Mexican officials expressed confidence the United States will increase its
spending if the program proves effective.
The White House has wanted to repair relations with
Mexico and U.S. Hispanics after fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks delayed
plans to ease the path to legalization for some of the 3 million
undocumented Mexicans in this country.
During a visit by Fox that ended Sept. 6, Bush called
on Congress to make such a change. Although Bush says he remains committed
to the goal, officials of both governments say broad liberalization of
U.S. immigration laws is not politically feasible now, in part because
some of the airliner hijackers were Arab immigrants in the country
illegally.
The new aid fund, called the U.S.-Mexico Partnership
for Progress, will use U.S. government money to promote private investment
in the Mexican countryside. Officials said the plan will help keep
families together, since many of the men who trek to the United States
leave their wives and children behind.
The program will include subsidies for Mexican
entrepreneurs who want to buy franchises of U.S. brands, education about
financial services so Mexican immigrants can send money home more cheaply
and partnerships to encourage a secondary mortgage market in Mexico. The
program also calls for greater cooperation between universities and
laboratories on both sides of the border, and for the creation of a labor
and talent bank.
Eduardo G. Sojo, Fox's economic policy coordinator,
said in an interview that the two presidents will invite each U.S. state
to pay for college scholarships for Mexicans. "The commitment of
President Bush is something we appreciate a lot," Sojo said.
At the same time, Bush is planning to toughen border
protection by merging the Customs Service and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, which includes the Border Patrol, officials said.
Aides recommended the plan to Bush yesterday and said they expect him to
approve it. The new border enforcement agency would fall under the Justice
Department.
Balancing his border policy is among the toughest
issues facing Bush. Hispanics are the fastest-growing group of U.S.
voters. This fall, Latino voters could prove crucial in several House
races.
Looking ahead to his departure for Mexico, Bush urged
the Senate yesterday to follow the House's lead and pass a bill that would
allow many illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while
applying for permanent residency.
"I want to show our friends, the Mexicans, that
we are compassionate about people who live here on a legal basis, that we
don't disrupt the families for people who are here legally," Bush
told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
Officials from the Bush and Fox administrations
jointly planned the spending of the new aid, which is notably less than
the billions of dollars Fox had suggested the U.S. invest in highways,
health clinics and other facilities in areas of Mexico that did not
benefit from NAFTA. Since the trade agreement took effect, Mexico has
become the nation's second-largest trading partner and fastest-growing
export market.
Robert A. Pastor, the National Security Council's
director of Latin American affairs under President Jimmy Carter, called
Bush's plan "quite trivial" considering "the central issue
of North American relations: the development gap between Mexico and its
two northern neighbors, which is the reason for the migration."
But M. Delal Baer, a member of a working group that
contributed to the plan, said it was built on the philosophy that
government seed money could create private initiatives that would last
long after Bush and Fox leave office. "This is the philosophy of
giving a man a fishing rod, not a fish," she said.
Maria Cardona, communications director of the
Democratic National Committee, called the plan cynical.
"This gives [Bush] a way to deliver something in
his visit with Fox that is satisfactory to the right wing of his
party," Cardona said.
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