Bush, Fox reach deal easing new border rules
CRAWFORD, Texas. -- President Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico reached an agreement in principle yesterday that will allow millions of Mexicans with short-term visas to cross the border without being fingerprinted and photographed by US authorities.
One possible substitute security measure that the administration is considering would be issuing the short-term visitors, many of whom work on the US side or have a relative there, a radio-frequency transponder similar to the E-ZPass toll-road device.
The concession, announced after Fox stayed overnight at Bush's ranch, represents an effort by Bush to promote business and improve relations at a time when Congress is refusing to take up his plan to help Mexicans to work legally in the United States.
"Mexico and the United States are more than neighbors," Bush said as he and Fox stood side by side at a news conference. "We are partners in building a safer, more democratic, and more prosperous hemisphere."
The two left unresolved the most pressing issues facing the two countries, including illegal immigration, water owed to the United States under a 1944 treaty, and cooperation on energy production.
Democrats sought to portray the summit as an expensive exercise in pandering. Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Bush's expected Democratic opponent, said in a statement, "Latinos can tell it's an election year because George W. Bush is finally paying attention to them."
Fox stayed about 20 hours. The two took a long walk, and Bush gave Fox what he calls a "windshield tour" of the ranch -- that is, from inside the white Ford pickup truck the Secret Service lets Bush drive on his 1,600-acre ranch. The presidents, along with first lady Laura Bush and Fox's wife, Marta Sahagun, dined Friday night on bass that Bush said he caught in a pond on the property.
The meeting was aimed at repairing rocky relations produced by Fox's decision to oppose the war in Iraq. Some members of Bush's war cabinet remain bitter about Fox's stance, but Bush was eager to put the disagreement behind them as he prepares election-year appeals to Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc.
Bush, stung by Republican opposition to the immigration proposal he made in January, allowed Fox to announce the planned change in entry requirements for visitors from Mexico who carry visas good for three days at a time.
"We welcome the news that was confirmed today with regard to visitors to the US from Mexico," Fox said at the news conference.
Administration officials said that after security details are worked out, Mexicans on the 72-hour visas will be exempted from the requirement that anyone entering the country submit to being photographed and fingerprinted. Advocates for immigrants said the requirement would hurt businesses along the border, including ones in South Texas, and could cause long delays at the border.
About 6.8 million people hold such visas, known as laser visas or border-crossing cards, which entail a background check and require the visitor to remain within 25 miles of the border.
The biometric requirements began Jan. 5 at airports and seaports, and were to go into effect at border crossings by Dec. 31. Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said officials are trying to integrate two computer systems so that the visa, which has biometric information embedded in it, can be read at land border crossings.
