HispanicBusiness

WASHINGTON -- Mexican President Vicente Fox, confident he brought the delicate matter of immigration to the forefront of U.S.-Mexican relations, returned home Friday with promises for future agreements.

On Thursday, Fox obtained a firm pledge by his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, to continue negotiating with Congress for the legalization of at least 3 million undocumented Mexicans.

Following a meeting with President Bush, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) said Congress was seeking "a plan for migration reform that makes sense" and that would have bipartisan support.

"Although Fox is leaving without a detailed immigration bill, he succeeded in obtaining a promise from Bush that they would continue to seek an agreement that would be beneficial to all concerned -- Congress, the Bush administration, and Mexico," Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told EFE.

Peschard-Sverdrup noted that Fox's strategy of proposing a timeline for achieving an immigration agreement "in Bush's own back yard" is indicative of his charisma and the importance the Mexican leader lends to the issue of migration.

"Fox has managed to sell Mexico's new image ... as well as what the two nations can accomplish in spite of domestic restrictions," Peschard-Sverdrup added.

The think-tank analyst explained that both Bush and Fox are facing less-than-favorable political and economic climates.

Bush must please Fox, his "good friend, partner, and neighbor," without sparking dissent among the Republican Party faithful who are wary of lenient immigration policies.

Although Bush is well aware that his party's most conservative members oppose any broad amnesty measures, the president is seeking a compromise to grant legal status to undocumented workers who have lived in the United States for a long time and have paid taxes, among other requirements.

Nevertheless, analysts say, there is little hope that Democrats and Republicans will come to an agreement before year's end, since only 45 days remain until the next congressional recess. And Fox, whose victory last year ended 70 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), must improve the Mexican economy as a means of dissuading future illegal immigration to the
United States.

Each year, Mexicans living in the United States send an estimated $10 billion in remittances to their families back home.

Despite a lack of concrete agreements, Fox did earn partial victories, including Senate approval for an extension to Section 245(i), an immigration program that permits migrants to remain in the United States while seeking permanent resident status.

In a joint press release, Fox and Bush said a bi-national working group would submit recommendations on border security, a guest worker program, and the legalization of undocumented immigrants in the United States by October 31.