President Bush arrives in Mexico.

It has been nicknamed "the cowboy summit." U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox -- both clad in cowboy boots and belts with large buckles -- met in Rancho San Cristóbal in Mexico today. In the first foreign trip of his presidency, Bush hopes to make progress on the thorny issue of how to handle the steady flow of illegal Mexican workers.

The two presidents will discuss a diverse agenda in San Cristóbal, including drug trafficking, expanding U.S. imports of oil and natural gas from Mexico, and disputes over Mexican truck traffic into the U.S. However, immigration is likely to take the most negotiation time. While Bush and Fox have met in the past and are said to have good relations, the two men have different views about illegal Mexican immigrants In the U.S.

Last fall, when then-president-elect Fox visited Washington, he proposed a European-like vision of an integrated North America with open borders and a common labor market. Neither President Clinton nor then-candidate Bush were receptive to the idea.

However, in partial realization of Fox's dream, Congress is now considering a Mexican guest-worker program proposed by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and other ways to legalize the flow of Mexican labor into the U.S. — Previous Mexican administrations sought to stem the flow of Mexican workers and were criticized by many who argued that high rates of illegal immigration to the U.S. acts as a "safety valve" reducing local unemployment and providing an influx of funds back into Mexico.

Payments from U.S.-based Mexican workers back to their families represent a significant portion of the country's economy. The practice is common in Fox's native state of Guanajuato, where most men aged 15 to 50 leave to look for higher-paying work north of the border and support their families by wiring home their wages.

Fox wants to greatly increase the number of visas issued for Mexicans and a new U.S. amnesty ruling to cover as many as 6 million people, many of them Mexican citizens.

While not as hot a topic as it was several years ago, increased immigration rates have been the topic of bitter public debates in certain U.S. states. "A powerful alliance has developed that works to perpetuate existing policies. The alliance includes big business seeking cheap labor; ethnic identity activists who seek political power; and the Mexican government, which wishes to continue to use the U.S as a safety valve for its low-wage workers," charges Al Knight, a Denver Post columnist. In certain parts of the 2,100-mileborder between the two countries, local governments and residents have constructed border walls and barbed-wire fences.

But others believe public opinion is shifting, and Americans feel less threatened by high immigration rates than they did in the past.

"After 10 years of solid economic growth, perhaps the US population is beginning to feel secure enough to realize that, indeed, there are certain sectors of our economy that are very dependent on foreign labor and that do not compete for domestic worker employment," says Delal Baer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I think the moment might be right to be able to discuss what was in the past a taboo subject."

In spite of existing border security and other legal impediments, there are an estimated 5 million undocumented workers believed to be currently laboring in the U.S. And the flow shows no signs of ebbing, despite the 8,800 U.S. border patrol agents who made 1.5 million arrests last year. Nearly 400 illegal immigrants died in attempts to cross the border last year, usually from exposure or by drowning in the Rio Grande.

"I look forward to discussing how we can build a century of the Americas," Bush told an audience of 700 State Department employees Thursday. "Mexico has seen a new birth of freedom, and trade is creating hope and economic progress. The doors are open to a closer partnership with the United States. But nothing about this new relationship is inevitable. Only through hard work will we get it right."

"This morning I held very cordial and productive meetings with the President," Fox said at a joint press conference with Bush in the afternoon. "The fact that President Bush's first foreign visit has our country as his destination sends a clear message about his intentions and his priorities."

Mexico is now the second-largest trading partner with the US, after Canada. Since NAFTA went into effect in 1994, Mexico's exports to the US have nearly quadrupled to about $150 billion annually.

Potential Rifts In U.S.-Mexico Relations	Fox Is Architect of New Era