October 26 2002

In a letter written to President Bush prior to an upcoming meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic Leader Dick Gebhardt urged the President to revitalize talks about immigration reform, as well as other topics of interest to U.S. - Mexico relations.

A copy of the letter sent to President Bush follows:

October 25, 2002

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. President,

We are pleased that you are traveling to Mexico. We hope you will use this opportunity to engage in important discussions with President Vicente Fox and re-energize efforts to develop policies on immigration, economic development, and counter-narcotics. Mexico is a vitally important neighbor to the United States, and we believe that the time to move forward on our mutual policy goals is long overdue. As you know, we traveled to Mexico in November 2001. That trip intensified our belief that if we hope to advance our bilateral agenda, your Administration must take an active leadership role. On the eve of your last trip to Mexico, we asked your Administration to re-engage with Mexico on the mutual policy goals that you and President Fox had outlined during his September 2001 State Visit. We are optimistic that your trip can facilitate progress and serve as an important step in moving forward. To assist in this effort, we have outlined specific issues that we believe should be discussed during your upcoming visit.

As you know, we continue to support comprehensive immigration reform that improves national security while recognizing the contributions hard-working immigrants have made to this country. Recently, several migrants, including individuals from Mexico, were trapped in a rail car bound for Iowa. Their tragic deaths further underscored the basic humanitarian need for policies that address safety issues at our borders. We must also reform our immigration policies to reflect our core values of family unity, fundamental fairness and economic opportunity. Finally, as we re-examine our immigration policies, we must ensure that hard-working immigrants have an opportunity to earn legalization.

We also believe that close cooperation with Mexico is the best way to address the common threat posed by narcotics trafficking. In order to promote closer cooperation, last year Congress suspended for one year the annual drug certification process, which had hindered, rather than facilitated cooperation on this vital matter. Since then, we have witnessed several instances in which the United States and Mexico have worked in tandem to effectively counter the threat posed by narcotics and narco-traffickers. Just last week the Fox Administration arrested several Mexican officials who reportedly colluded with the major drug cartels.

These developments reaffirm our belief that Congress made the right policy decision in permanently changing the drug certification statute in this year's State Department Authorization Act, which you signed on September 30, 2002. We hope that your meeting with President Fox will result in additional measures to increase cooperation in this battle.

We remain convinced that bilateral and multilateral economic assistance to Mexico must be greatly expanded. We support your effort to reform the North American Development Bank (NADBank) as a necessary first step. When the NADBank begins to provide grants and below-market rate loans on a pilot basis, it will begin to meet its sustainable border development mission. However, much more remains to be done. For instance, billions of dollars of environmental infrastructure is needed in the fast-growing border region.

We are concerned that in the interior of Mexico, development programs remain severely underfunded. Little has been done to target additional World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank resources to the interior of Mexico, and funding for micro-credit programs to encourage small business development there remains minuscule. If the Mexican middle class can grow more rapidly, more markets for U.S. exports will be created.

Lastly, we are hopeful that you will be able to make some progress on the contentious border water treaty dispute. We hope that whatever is done will both address the immediate severe water shortfall faced by U.S. agriculture and promote sustainable water development for communities on both sides of the border over the long term.

Mexico has been a helpful and trusted ally in the fight against terrorism, and we believe President Fox stands ready to pursue progress on the broad array of issues on the U.S.-Mexican agenda. We trust that you will take full advantage of this opportunity, and believe that tangible progress on the issues highlighted above will advance the interests of both our countries.

Sincerely,

Tom Daschle

Richard A. Gephardt