City News Service, May 26, 2006, Friday

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May 26, 2006 Friday 10:19 PM PST

HEADLINE: Fox Meets With Villaraigosa

BYLINE: ART MARROQUIN

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

BODY:
Mexican President Vicente Fox met with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today at Getty Center, with immigration not on the agenda, but coming up during both officials' dinner speeches.
Villaraigosa said proposed immigration legislation before Congress had resulted in "so much heat, and so little light illuminating the debate over the relationship with our two countries."
Fox said "a legal, safe, orderly migration policy will benefit the security and the prosperity of both of our nations."
"Mexico believes that it will take more than just enforcement -- walls -- to truly solve the challenges posed by the migration phenomenon," Fox said.
Fox has said he's working to improve Mexico's economy "so migration won't be a necessity."
The Senate passed a sweeping bill yesterday that would upgrade border security and offer a path to citizenship to most illegal immigrants in the U.S. The bill's future is uncertain because of its huge difference with an immigration bill approved by the House of Representatives.
Villaraigosa said he would not raise the issue of illegal immigration with Fox because it is outside his control, seemingly contradicting some recent activities where he backed immigration legislation.
"I am not in any way avoiding my responsibilities to represent a city like Los Angeles, with so many immigrants," Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference yesterday. "I just believe that as the mayor of the city of Los Angeles, my focus will be on that which I can speak intelligently on."
Villaraigosa has discussed immigration with President Bush and lawmakers during recent trips to Washington, D.C., announced his support for McCain- Kennedy immigration bill and appeared at rallies calling for liberalization of immigration laws.
"My voice on this issue is absolutely clear," Villaraigosa said. "I believe we should support broad immigration reforms that secures our borders, enforces our immigration laws, holds people accountable for breaking the law, while providing a pathway for citizenship for people who are living and working here.
"I know for a fact that President Fox is well aware of my position."
The pair were to discuss trade and tourism, including Villaraigosa's plan to form an Office of International Trade so the city can boost trade with Mexico, Central America, Korea, China and Taiwan.
"As poor as Mexico is, vis-a-vis the United States, their economy is larger than most nations in the world," Villaraigosa said. "Figuring out how we can attract more investments from Mexico ... is well within the purview of the mayor of Los Angeles."
Two-way trade between Mexico and the greater Los Angeles area was estimated at $25 billion in 2005, supporting some 42,000 jobs countywide, Villaraigosa said. Last year, about 1.5 million Mexican citizens visited Los Angeles, spending $1.5 billion, he said.
"The economic ties between Mexico and Los Angeles are broad in scope and pay dividends on both sides of the border," Villaraigosa said.
Villaraigosa said tourism and trade between Mexico and California could suffer as Bush prepares to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border.
"There's no question that putting up a wall or assigning the National Guard could have a chilling effect on tourism," Villaraigosa said. "That's why I think it's important for us to focus on the positive aspects of this relationship that are so essential."
Fox, who will leave office Dec. 1, met earlier today with Cardinal Roger Mahony at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.
"He spent most of the time actually talking about development inside Mexico," Mahony said. "He never once talked to us about what we should or should not do here in our country with our legislative process. Never referred to it."
Border security did come up, Mahony said.
"He said this is not just an issue for the United States," Mahony said. "It is an issue for us, because along the border there is a tremendous amount of crime. There are criminals going across. There are drug traffickers. There are a lot of problems, so he himself is very concerned about a secure border."
Villaraigosa and his wife greeted Fox at Los Angeles International Airport, where the Mexican president arrived at 1:01 p.m., continuing his first visit to California since 2001. Fox flew back to Mexico from Los Angeles International Airport following the Getty Center dinner.
Fox's visit prompted several protests.
Black activists protested at City Hall this morning, saying illegal immigration is an economic threat to low-income Americans.
Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic HOPE, said African-Americans are "impacted by illegal immigrants in our overcrowded schools and hospitals who take our jobs and welfare benefits."
"Our fight is not against the undocumented immigrants who are fleeing Mexico for a better life," Ali said. "We're not going to be pitted against them, but certainly we're protesting President Fox coming over here for this tour, rather than dealing with economic problems in his country."
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said Fox should have set aside time to meet with leaders in the black community to apologize for a comment made last year that Mexicans "are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States."
"That was offensive, that was insulting," Hutchinson said. "And he has the gall to tell the federal government and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to accept Mexico's undocumented workers, even though we have a huge unemployment problem in this country with African-Americans who will take those jobs."
A 2004 book, "The Impact of Immigration on African Americans," found that immigration has led to lower wages for less skilled and less educated blacks and their substantial displacement from the job market, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefitted less or been harmed more than the African American population," one of the book's authors, Vernon M. Briggs Jr., a Cornell University labor economist, told The Times last month.
Members of the Union Binacional de Ex Braceros, a group claiming to represent the more than 150,000 people who worked in the United States from 1942 to 1964 under the bracero program, marched from the Mexican Consulate to the Millennium Biltmore to demand back pay and an apology from the Mexican government. The program was sponsored by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
A midday demonstration was also held outside the Millennium Biltmore hotel to criticize the Mexican government's actions in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico. Activists claimed authorities have repressed residents there fighting against the installation of an airport and a Wal-Mart.
A group of protesters were outside the Getty Center, some carrying placards saying "Fox Fix Mexico" and "No Amnesty."
"What he needs to do is work with us, shut off the flow of drugs, shut off the flow of illegal aliens up into our country," protestor Larry Culbertson told ABC7. "He needs to fix his country."