Bush hosts Fox - to set an example

Bush's repeated use of terms like "family values," the "work ethic," "international neighborliness," and his openness to immigration liberalization can be seen two ways, says Jon Amastae, director of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies at the University of El Paso in Texas. "You can see it as his effort to educate the rest of the country about what Texas learned even before him - how much we are becoming dependent on Mexico and the importance of trade for our economies - or you can see it as part of the continual search for votes."

Even with Bush's positive words, most Americans remain ambivalent about their southern neighbors. A survey this summer by Public Strategies Inc. of Austin, Texas, found that only one-quarter believe conditions in Mexico are improving, while even less - 21 percent - thought the US should accept more Mexican workers. While 67 percent agreed that Mexico is vital to US interests, only 45 percent said the US benefits from free trade with Mexico.

Some observers, meanwhile, see little that is new about a Mexican president. They view Fox being as under pressure from a faltering economy and insufficient job creation, turning to a US president whose most powerful constituencies - in agriculture, construction, and services - want a steady flow of cheap labor.

"Fox finds himself in a pretty traditional place for a Mexican president," says Mr. Grayson, adding that US interests haven't changed much, either. "Guest-worker programs have always been designed to keep labor costs low and prevent unionization, and that's the goal here."

But administration officials close to the negotiations for a guest-worker program insist there is a big difference. One reason Bush finds Fox's proposals interesting, they say, is that Fox doesn't want to simply push Mexicans north. Instead, he wants a "circular" program that would target Mexicans from the country's impoverished south. They would go north, learning skills and earning money, then return to boost Mexico's development.

The guest-worker discussion exemplifies how much that has changed about the US-Mexico relationship has come from the Mexican side. Fox first caught the US off guard a year ago when, as president-elect, he came to the US and began talking about an "open border" within a decade. (He has since backed off that timetable.)

He then named as his foreign minister Jorge Castañeda, who has a keen knowledge of Mexico's northern neighbor and a determination to seize an opportunity to forge a more equal relationship with the US.

"Some Americans will have problems accepting the idea of Mexico as an equal party in discussions and actions, but Fox has made that a closer reality," says Mr. Amastae. "He's very good at defining the terms of the debate."

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