Talks between U.S.-Mexican officials will focus on migration issues

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ After a 14-month impasse, U.S. and Mexican officials will see if they can establish common ground on ways to revamp laws governing Mexican migration to the United States.

Migration issues is one of the topics Secretary of State Colin Powell and five other senior Bush administration officials will deal with Monday and Tuesday during talks in Mexico City.

Powell and his colleagues will be looking for progress in persuading Mexico to repay a huge water debt based on a 1944 treaty. Mexico's inability to pay the debt has angered many Texas ranchers.

A major concern for Mexico is the elimination, on Jan. 1, of tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico, a step provided for in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico complains that U.S. government subsidies will give U.S. farmers an unfair advantage over their Mexican counterparts, possibly driving them out of business and perhaps inducing them to sneak across the border.

The new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, told Mexican reporters last week that the United States is considering giving legalized residency _ but not citizenship _ to about 15 percent of undocumented workers, and may increase the number of temporary work visas.

But a State Department official, briefing reporters on Powell's visit, said Thursday he was unaware of the proposal, allowing that perhaps the ambassador knows something the State Department is unaware of.

The official, asking not to be identified, said it does not make sense to offer proposals to Mexico on migration that may not have a chance of receiving approval by Congress.

President Vicente Fox put migration reform at the top of his cross-border agenda after taking office two years ago. President Bush seemed receptive but, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mexico was informed that border security would displace migration reform as the top U.S. priority in relations with Mexico.

Recently, U.S. threats to attack Iraq have alarmed an instinctively isolationist Mexican public. Fox and his aides have urged the United States to take no action without approval from the U.N. Security Council, of which Mexico is a nonpermanent member. Mexico's lack of enthusiasm for the Iraqi intervention has clearly irritated U.S. officials.

The senior U.S. official said Powell looks forward to discussing with Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda ideas to make progress on migration.

It's estimated there are as many as 5 million undocumented Mexican aliens living in the United States. Fox believes they deserve legal status in the United States because of the contributions they make to the American economy and says the United States should show more flexibility on the issue.

Accompanying Powell on the trip will be Attorney General John Ashcroft, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Interior Secretary Gail Norton, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman and other officials.

Mexico and the United States have held Cabinet-level consultations virtually on an annual basis since 1981.