    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
    [March 30, 2006]
    [Pages 620-623]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following Discussions With President Vicente Fox Quesada of Mexico in Cancun
    March 30, 2006

        President Fox. We are ready. Good afternoon. I would like to welcome
    President Bush to Quintana Roo, to Cancun, and to Mexico. It is a great
    honor to have him here, particularly in this place in Cancun, which is
    all set and receiving many visitors. But the best visitors are President
    Bush and Prime Minister Harper, with our working agenda that will be
    fruitful and positive for the three countries in Latin America.
        Some words from Mr. Bush.
        President Bush. Mr. President, thank you very much. First of all,
    thanks for inviting us to Cancun. It's such a beautiful part of the
    world. The hospitality is magnificent. I know you were hit hard by
    hurricanes, which reminds me that I need to thank you and the Mexican
    people for your strong support and help after Hurricane Katrina.
        I will never forget being on the--in the gulf coast area of my
    country, helping people--lift people's spirits. And we went to a school
    that had been destroyed by Katrina, a little elementary school. And
    there was the Navy construction team working side by side with members
    of the Mexican Navy. It was a great sign of cooperation, and it reflects
    the spirit of friendship that defines the relationship between our two
    countries and defines our personal relationship.
        When you were speaking, I thought about the first time I went to
    visit you. I was newly elected and flew down to your fantastic ranch.
    And that started a very important relationship. And I think it's
    important for the people of our countries to know that while we haven't
    agreed on every single issue, that nevertheless, we work in the spirit
    of friendship and cooperation.
        Today we had a very important discussion. We discussed border
    security. The President understands, and I understand, we have an
    obligation to secure our borders. And I want to thank your Government
    for sending out such a strong statement about the need for--that the
    shared responsibility we have. In other words, border security is not
    just one country's prerogative; it's the prerogative and duty of both
    countries. And we spent time talking about how to work together to
    continue to strengthen that cooperation necessary to do our duty.
        I also appreciate the President's work to enforce Mexico's southern
    border. It's a difficult job, but nevertheless, the President shared
    with me the strategies he's employing to do that job as well.
        Obviously, the migration issue came up. I told the President there
    is a legislative process that's going forward, and that it may look
    cumbersome to some, but that's

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    how our democracy works. I told the President that I am committed to
    having a comprehensive immigration bill on my desk. And by
    ``comprehensive'' I mean not only border security--a bill that has
    border security in it, a bill that has interior enforcement in it, but a
    bill that has a worker permit program in it. And that's an important
    part of having a border that works.
        We don't want people sneaking into our country that are going to do
    jobs Americans won't do; we want them coming in, in an orderly way,
    which will take pressure off of both our borders. And I explained to the
    President my vision of the citizenship issue. I don't believe somebody
    should be allowed to come into our country and get ahead of the line,
    the citizenship line.
        And so I told President Fox that I think a program that will work is
    somebody working on a temporary basis with a tamper-proof ID card. And
    if they want to become a citizen, they can get in line but not the head
    of the line. And I reminded the President I called for an increase of
    green cards the other day in Washington, DC, as one way to help manage
    this issue.
        But at any rate, we're in the middle of a legislative process. I'm
    optimistic we can get a bill done, and I look forward to continuing to
    work with members of both parties to get a bill done.
        We also talked about President Fox's vision of working together in
    our hemisphere, particularly in Central America. And he's proposed a
    very innovative set of ideas to help stabilize and help encourage growth
    in Central America, starting with an energy initiative. And of course we
    appreciate your leadership on that issue, and I look forward to sending
    some of our experts down to listen to the ideas being talked about.
        One idea, of course, we want to inject in the conversation is the
    idea of developing alternatives to gasoline that comes from crude oil,
    that we'd like to see more use of ethanol, and how we can work together
    to increase the crops necessary to become the feedstock for an ethanol
    production.
        But at any rate, the point I'm making is, is that we've got a lot to
    do in our relationship. President Fox is--if people take an objective
    look at his record, one of the things that I'm most proud of, and I
    think our country must be most appreciative of, is the stability of the
    Mexican economy. It's important to have a trade partner that has got a
    stable economy. And, Mr. President, you've done a fine job of providing
    stability and increasing the net worth of your citizens, and that's
    important for the American economy as well. The more net worth there is
    in Mexico, the more likely it is a Mexican may be wanting to buy a U.S.
    product--and vice versa, by the way. And so our trade has made a
    difference in the lives of our citizens, and your leadership has made a
    difference in the state of your economy.
        So it's good to be with you again, sir. Thank you for your warm
    hospitality.
        President Fox. Thank you, President Bush. Thank you. I would like to
    mention with great satisfaction how productive the relation with the
    United States has been on bilateral basis, how the NAFTA, the Free Trade
    Agreement of North America has been, in order to promote development
    here in Mexico. And all this is part of a commitment and obligation of
    generating opportunities, making sure that we can build up, create jobs,
    create greater income, revenues for the families in Mexico, the
    maquilla, the--[inaudible]--industry installed in the border of the
    country.
        There is a deficit of 100,000 people. They want to give jobs to
    100,000 people due to the great growth that's going on. And not only in
    this field but in many other fields, in many other areas, we have been
    working. We might say that something that appeared in the mass media in
    Mexico--opposition of a state, clearly, very clearly in Mexico of the
    political parties--the Congress; the house of representatives;

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    the upper chamber, the Senators; the Executive power, the President of
    the Republic; the Governors of the States--everybody, everybody has a
    very clear idea in the topic of our relationship with the United States
    and, particularly, migration. It is a shared--shared--responsibility,
    and we understand very clearly here in Mexico all the main characters of
    the political scenario that we have to work so as to assume our
    responsibility.
        Furthermore, we are working with Central American countries with the
    same purpose. Let us assume shared responsibilities. It is very clear
    for us that tomorrow, the Congress of the United States might approve
    any sort of bill, any sort of matter, migration-wise. It is a sovereign
    decision, of course, in the United States, but Mexico assumes its
    responsibilities to work with passion, with commitment, diligently, with
    our economy and developing opportunities for our people.
        Our commitment with the citizenship is very broad. For example, with
    the United States, we work closely with Homeland Security, with the
    Ministry of the Interior here in Mexico, with Secretary Abascal.
    Secretary Abascal has a total support of the President of the Republic,
    and the possibility of adding the support of all the ministries and all
    the different Federal agencies that have to do with safety and security,
    so that we can give steps forward in this topic on the border.
        We want to have a safe border for the benefit of our citizens and
    for the benefit of our relationship with the United States. Likewise, we
    have intensified our actions with the OASISS project. We are going after
    the criminals that are trafficking with people, that are, let's say,
    promoting illegally the movement of citizens to the United States--the
    alien smugglers. We have stopped more than 120 of these criminals, alien
    smugglers.
        Likewise, in the southern border, as President Bush said, we are
    very active, very active on what has to do with patrol, constructions of
    different stations so as to stop migrants, illegal migrants, people that
    are coming illegally to the Mexican territory, and sending them back to
    their own countries, with due respect to human rights. But we're doing
    an efficient work in that sense.
        Now, with the same type of orientation, the idea that we share with
    President Bush, to consider an important element to thrust development
    in the Central American economies so that they can grow, they can
    generate jobs, that through this project and through this program they
    can generate actual opportunities in these countries, and this is a
    program of energy.
        With this program, we want to achieve the construction of refineries
    for oil, different docks to build natural gas, sources of electric
    energy on the other hand, and conversion of natural gas--liquid, fluid
    gas to natural gas. It is a program that we shall approve next May, the
    Central American countries and Mexico. And we are cordially inviting the
    United States to attend, to know, to observe, to see the project, so as
    to know how can we interact with the strength and the capacity of North
    America so as to integrate a strong development and solid process in the
    Central American countries.
        We have spoken--we have mentioned about the whole American canal. We
    have to reactivate the working commission in this area so that we can
    discuss ideas and give solutions for both parts, as we have always done,
    worked together, have a dialog, find solutions. And this is what we have
    proposed in reference to the total or whole American channel.
        Thus, I want to thank President Bush for his attendance, for his
    presence, and for his work, as well as all his team.
        Tomorrow in the trilateral meeting, we will be covering other
    topics--the topic of safety and security and then some other developing
    topics amongst the three countries, the three partners that belong to
    this

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    bloc of both economy, trade, and association for our prosperity and
    security of North America.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:12 p.m. at the Fiesta Americana Condesa
    Cancun Hotel. President Fox spoke in Spanish, and his remarks were
    translated by an interpreter. President Fox referred to Prime Minister
    Stephen Harper of Canada; and Secretary of Government Jose Carlos Maria
    Abascal Carranza of Mexico. The Office of the Press Secretary also
    released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.