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CNN Live At Daybreak

How Will Congress Address Fox's Demands

Aired September 06, 2001 - 07:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking about Mexican President Vicente Fox's visit at the White House, the big state dinner last night. But the big surprise was, frankly, a straight out demand that he is making of the Bush administration. He expects to have legal status for more than three million undocumented Mexican workers in the United States as well as new rules for a guest worker program by the end of the year. A big battle in Congress ahead on that.

So let's see what the behind-the-scenes looks like. Congressman Silvestre Reyes is chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and have had a face to face meeting with Vicente Fox. And we should also note that congressman, you once worked for the Border Patrol. You have seen the problems up hand, up close and personal, and your district borders with Mexico, so you certainly speak from personal experience. Good morning.

REP. SILVESTRE REYES (D), TEXAS: Good morning.

I spent 26 1/2 years working in the United States Border Patrol. I retired in actually '95 to run for Congress.

LIN: So how did the meeting go with Mr. Fox?

REYES: Well, you know, I sense that there's an air of irritation from not just President Fox, but from the Mexican government in general, because in the original meeting that they had back in Guanajuato, I think President Bush basically promised some quick action on this issue in particular and since then the president has found out that it's a much more complex issue than he anticipated. And today it's a situation where he's got to negotiate with Congress. The issue has not perhaps developed as quickly as the president had hoped or anticipated and had frankly promised President Fox.

LIN: So it sounds like that President Fox said to you that he felt that President Bush was dishonest with him when they met in Mexico.

REYES: No, I don't think there's dishonesty involved. I think there's lack of understanding and perhaps an experience factor there, that President Bush was not familiar with, well, three basic things. First of all, the complexity of the issue. Secondly, the hard core element within his party that would oppose his ability to do any kind of a legalization program. And third, I don't think the president anticipated having to negotiate with a Democrat controlled Senate. So all those things are part of the issue as we see it now with this presidential visit to Washington.

LIN: Well, what sort of leverage does Vicente Fox think he has with not only President Bush but also the U.S. Congress?

REYES: Well, I think certainly there are a number of members of Congress on both the Senate and the House side that subscribe to basic principles that we ought to be moving forward with some kind of legalization program. Certainly there is support for a guest worker program, but in conjunction with a legalization program that would be fair to, and not just to Mexicans, but to individuals from throughout the world that are here working, paying taxes, members of the community. Those are basic principles that many members of Congress subscribe to.

The leverage that President Fox really has is just the conversation and the agreement and the handshake that he feels that he had with President Bush to get this done.

LIN: Congressman, but there, but frankly, he's got a huge oil reserve in Mexico. He has authority to release more power from a power plant, a critical power plant in Baja, California. All of those big concerns for the United States and United States business during just, we just saw this last summer during our energy crunch. Is Vicente Fox willing to say, tit for tat, if you don't do this, you don't get that?

REYES: Well, we have a number of issues. When you talk about, you know, leverage, I mean there's leverage on both sides. There are water issues that we're very much concerned about in the border region that deal with Mexico and Mexico's water to the United States. On the, in the western states, the situation is just exactly reversed. The United States, Mexico feels, owes some water accountability to them.

Don't forget that President Fox in his last visit to the United States actually made a tour through the U.S. asking for economic investment in Mexico. There's leverage on both sides. I just think that it's a better policy on both sides, perhaps, to sit down at the table, find out what the negotiating issues may be and then work both, from both administrations' perspective and both congressional perspectives.

LIN: Gotcha.

REYES: Because as a member of the interparliamentary group, we've been discussing this with our counterparts from Mexico for well over a year now.

LIN: Sure. Well, Vicente Fox has laid out the agenda and it's pretty clear what he wants by the end of the year.

REYES: Right.

LIN: Thank you very much, Congressman Reyes, for joining us this morning.

REYES: My pleasure. Thank you.

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