Fox: U.S. Action on Immigration Issue Can't Wait for ‘Mañana'

Solutions to the immigration problems now being discussed in the presidential debates never seemed so close as they did in 2001, the first year in office for President Bush and for Mexico's former president, Vicente Fox.

Six years later, Mr. Fox says revisiting, and sealing, a similar deal can no longer wait for "mañana." In public appearances yesterday in New York at the launch of an American tour to sell his new book, "Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President," Mr. Fox seemed to favor Senator Clinton in the 2008 presidential race. But real changes on immigration cannot depend on promises made by presidential candidates who may not deliver once elected, he said.

Immigration reform should not wait for next year, he said, adding that he favors at least one current Senate legislative proposal, which covers all bases. "The McCain-Kennedy initiative, the one that is supported by President Bush himself — it's all there," Mr. Fox told The New York Sun yesterday. But "it has to be decided. This issue cannot be delayed any more. And my call to Congress is: Decide. Work on a decision that will be good for America, good for Mexico, good for everybody."

Sworn in as president on December 1, 2000, Mr. Fox quickly identified the flow of undocumented workers across the Rio Grande as a top political issue for him and for Mr. Bush. The two new presidents liked cowboy boots and cowboy hats, and both owned almost neighboring ranches. They also were uninitiated in world affairs but placed the issue of their common border at the top of their agendas.

For both Messrs. Fox and Bush, "it was a domestic issue but also a foreign policy issue," the Mexican foreign minister at the time, Jorge Castañeda, said yesterday.

In their first year, the two administrations "made a lot of progress" on an immigration pact, he added. After reaching an agreement with the White House, getting new legislation through Congress perhaps would have encountered new obstacles, he acknowledged, but "by the end of 2001, we could have had something done," he said.

Then came the September 11, 2001, attacks, and Mr. Fox, who until then was hailed as Mr. Bush's most solid foreign ally, was pushed aside. The pet foreign policy issue in Mexico City, immigration reform, became secondary for America, behind the war on terror.

"Nine-eleven delayed this issue, the solution to immigration reform, and changed priorities." Mr. Fox said yesterday. "And I understand that, but now it's time to move on."

Making laws to assure a comprehensive new approach to immigration "could not be mañana, mañana," Mr. Fox said. "It has to be today. It has to be decided because otherwise the xenophobes will occupy the space that is not being occupied" by the legislative process. The "wall," as Mr. Fox calls the newly erected barrier along the American-Mexican border, will not work, just as it did not work in China or Berlin, he said, even evoking President Reagan's "tear down this wall" appeal to Mikhail Gorbachev. Instead, Mr. Fox calls for new agreements among the three North American countries, which would create an economic bloc to compete with China and Europe.

As for immigration, any legislation must address three issues, Mr. Fox said. First, it should create "a solution to those who are here and are working in this country, contributing to this economy, and have a job — so those should be documented. No. 2: Future flow of immigration according to the needs of the U.S. economy. And no. 3: full respect to human rights and to labor rights."

Speaking at New York University yesterday, where he was interviewed by Mr. Castañeda, who now is an NYU professor, Mr. Fox repeated past objections to the Iraq War. One good result of that war, he quipped, is that "we're going to have a lady president now — Hillary."

But asked afterward by the Sun which of the presidential candidates he thought would best advance immigration reform, Mr. Fox was a bit more cautious.

"It's difficult to say, because when you are a candidate, you promise on many things, and later, you don't deliver," he said. "But I think it's the key issue that the candidates should have in their minds and should be ready to respond to because it is 100 years old, this problem."

The first Mexican president to launch a new career after leaving office, he advised NYU students against retiring. After revolutionizing Mexico's politics, beginning to liberate its economy, and helping to secure the election of an heir, President Calderon, Mr. Fox says he and wife Martha will not take Mexico's traditional post-presidential route of disappearing from the public eye. "I don't know what Martha and I will do sitting in the ranch," he said.