Bush and Fox are meeting in Guanajuato tomorrow, and a change of
immigration law is in the cards.     Bush is now carrying on the
basic program begun by Clinton (and Greenspan), to reformulate the
relations between Mexico and the US.

This meeting, and the new proposals regarding immigration and work visas
for Mexican nationals, will set the foundation for the NAFTA extension
throughout the Americas.     As such, it is the preliminary to the
Quebec City junta that will take place this April.

It will also be the foundation for building Latin American support for
Plan Colombia.     Precisely, because the issues of 'Border
Control', 'Drug War', and economic policy in regard to immigrant labor
supply for the US market, are increasingly becoming entwined.

Key to formulating a workable 'free trade' throughout the Americas, is
the issue of relations between Mexico and the US.     And key to
Mexican/ US relations is the issue of how Mexican nationals are
regulated as neighbors of the US.

It is more than just the issue of 'undocumented workers' in the US, but
also the issue of how all travel and 'tourism' from Mexico to the US is
handled.     How will the Mexican citizen, wanting to visit a
relative in Houston or Chicago, be treated when they apply for a travel
permit?

If they are treated badly, it destroys the ability to build up Mexican
political support for the entire US Latin American policy initiative. It
works against the ability to construct a hemispheric trade bloc
competitive with the European and Asian.

As it is today, most of the tiny Mexican elite class have no
restrictions on their US travel.     It is the Mexican middle class
that must be allowed freer access to US travel, while the Mexican
working class must be regulated in an entirely different manner, than in
using only the methods of the past..... that of hunting the poor down as
wild animals.

It is not that the imperialist elite of the US have had a change of
heart, it is soley that the political costs of continuing in the same
vein are becoming increasingly inexpedient.

Below, are the proposals of the bilateral think-tank assembled to
negociate the new immigration, work, and travel regulations.    
Their proposals were released to the press... on Valentines Day!

Tony Abdo












http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/SumofRec.asp?p=6&from=pubdate