YAKIMA, Wash. — With immigration issues front and center before the U.S. Congress, Mexico's president made an emotion-laden visit to this agricultural valley in central Washington state Wednesday, telling hundreds of farmworkers at an apple orchard that "we miss you very much in Mexico."
"We know about your sorrow and your nostalgia for your land and your music and your communities and your families," Fox told the workers.
Greeted by a 13-piece mariachi band and a boisterous, cheering crowd in an area where nearly half the population is Latino, most with ties to Mexico, Mexican President Vicente Fox used the second day of his four-day U.S. trip to highlight support for what he called an "orderly" guest worker program.
Fox stopped here between speeches in Salt Lake City and Seattle, and he is scheduled to arrive today in California, where he will meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
"It's clear that we need to reach an agreement to give security, legality and order to the flow of migrant people," said Fox, a reference to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who cross the border illegally to find work tending and picking crops in the U.S.
Congress is debating a number of proposals to deal with the issue.
Many lawmakers favor building hundreds of miles of triple-layer fences to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and increasing fines for those who hire illegal immigrants. Others say the workers are a vital part of the economy whose contributions should be recognized with new laws making it easier for them to work here legally -- and to cross safely.
Fox put himself firmly in the latter camp during his speeches Wednesday and paid tribute to the workers, who, he said in Spanish, "came to this land with sacrifice, often risking their lives."
In Salt Lake City, speaking in English in an address before the state Legislature, Fox said his government supported a "new system that regulates the movement of people across our border in a manner which is legal, safe and orderly."
Highlighting the contentiousness of the issue, however, about 50 demonstrators protested outside the Utah Capitol, waving signs that said, "Do not give up state and national sovereignty to Mexico" and "Anarchy Breeds Lawlessness."
"I'm outraged to see Fox in our country because he promotes law-breaking," said Robin Hvidston of Upland, a supporter of the anti-illegal immigration group the Minutemen. For state lawmakers to even meet with the Mexican president, she added, "is something close to treason."
