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PHOENIX -- Mexican President Vicente Fox promised Mexicans in the United States his administration is working to guarantee them human and labor rights.
In a speech Tuesday making repeated reference to the unity between Mexicans at home and those abroad, Fox promised to work without rest to assure dignity for those who are here, both in worker and human rights.
Some promises were more precise, from working to ensure that Mexicans here can vote in that country's next presidential election to reducing the fees for sending money home from the United States. In fact he made specific reference to the good done back in Mexico from cash received from Mexicans working here.
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"Mexicans appreciate your efforts," he said in Spanish to a cheering crowd of about 3,000, mainly Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals. "We will never forget you."
That speech at the Phoenix Civic Plaza was in sharp contrast to the message he took earlier in the day to business leaders at the Arizona Biltmore.
There, the Mexican president, speaking in English, talked about the political, economic and social stability of his country. And he said that the conditions are right for foreigners to invest, particularly in northern Mexico.
"We are in Mexico developing a new platform of competitiveness through tax changes, thorough deregulation and eliminating of red tape, through tax incentives in the border specifically and building all favorable conditions in investment in this region," he said.
He and Gov. Janet Napolitano both promised to work together to keep jobs, if not in the United States, at least in North America.
"The United States and Arizona are both losing jobs to offshore locations," the governor said, adding that Mexico lost about 250,000 manufacturing jobs to China last year.
The pair also shared another goal: changes in United States immigration laws, particularly as they relate to Mexicans seeking work north of the border. Fox said he wants "a framework that guarantees legal, safe and orderly migration flows."
Napolitano said she backs efforts by three members of Arizona's congressional delegation -- Sen. John McCain and Reps. Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake -- to set up a new type of guest worker program.
She said it serves both the interests of U.S. homeland security and those who are risking their lives crossing the border "so that when people come into our country they don't need to use a pollero," who helps border crossers.
"They can come through legally, we know who they are," she said. "We can enhance safety, we can enhance United States security and we can also deal with the humanitarian problem of deaths in the desert that have troubled many of us for so, so long."
Fox also told reporters he is working to improve economic conditions in his own country so that Mexicans do not feel they have to leave to find work. He said interest and inflation rates in Mexico are at historic lows.
Fox also cited a program to provide scholarships for about a million Mexican students to send them to universities and technical schools.
And he talked about a program to provide $2.5 million in "micro credits" for start-up small businesses.
Fox was met at the Civic Plaza by about two dozen protestors carrying signs protesting Mexican immigration.
nicole ray wrote on Jun 21, 2009 3:35 PM: