Bush considers new foreign worker scheme

Mexican immigrants might receive a warmer welcome

President George W Bush is reported to be considering a plan that would give legal status to the estimated three million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, currently on a five-day visit to the US, is said to be pressing Mr Bush to take such a step, on the basis that hard-working Mexicans are helping the American economy.

Just to summarily grant legal status to three million people, many of them that got here illegally - I'd want to make sure that we do this carefully

Trent Lott
Senate Republican leader

But the White House says its main interest is not to grant permanent residential status en masse, but rather to establish a temporary guest-worker programme.

The plan is one of the options under consideration by an immigration task-force, made up of top Justice and State Department officials, which is expected to send its report to Mr Bush on Monday.

Not amnesty

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the main focus of the working group was not an amnesty for the Mexican illegal aliens.

"The focus is on a new temporary worker programme," Fleischer told reporters. He said that the review was a "work in progress" and that no decisions had yet been made.

"State and Justice are taking a look at a new temporary worker program that would focus on such things as preventing adverse effects on US workers, ensuring legal rights and protections for these temporary workers who come to this country and promoting a secure and orderly border," he said.

Controversial scheme

Any such scheme would be controversial and it is already sparking heated debate in US political circles.

"Just to summarily grant legal status to three million people, many of them that got here illegally and have violated the law while they're here - I'd want to make sure that we do this carefully," said Senate Republican leader Trent Lott.

But a fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, disagrees: "These people are living here and it's a recognition of reality. They are working here."

This immigrant was caught hiding in a bus chair

Some Democrats would be likely to oppose such a plan because of union fears that mass immigration drives down wages and reduces job opportunities for Americans.

The plight of the millions of illegal Mexican immigrants in the US is one of the key factors affecting relations between the two countries.

On Sunday, Mr Fox told a gathering of several hundred Mexicans in Chicago: "We have to assure, protect and guarantee the human rights and legal rights of every Mexican inside or outside the country."

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans brave the desert heat to cross the border illegally.

If this would happen, it would electrify the Latino community

Cecilia Munoz
National Council of La Raza

They are motivated by the fact that workers in America can earn in an hour what many Mexicans earn in a whole day.

Many Mexican communities simply would not survive without the remittances sent back by illegal workers in the US.

But the cost is very high.

Verge of death

In the past three years, 851 border crossers have died and more than 4,000 have been rescued on the verge of death in the deserts which divide the USA and Mexico.

Mr Bush is well acquainted with the issue from his time as Governor of Texas - one of the states where border jumpers first arrive.

In last year's election campaign, he courted the Latino vote and correspondents say that any plan to grant legal status to immigrants would be a big vote-winner with Mexican-American voters.

"This administration has a tremendous opportunity to reshape migration policy... if this would happen, it would electrify the Latino community," said Cecilia Munoz, a vice-president of the National Council of La Raza.