FOX CALLED EAGER TO TACKLE BORDER ISSUES

Mexican President Vicente Fox is ready to tackle a slew of border issues
besides immigration and labor, Sen. Pete Domenici said Thursday.

"(Fox) is a doer, and he's ready to get on with the business of Mexico and
certainly does not want delays," he said.

Domenici, R-N.M., met Fox in Mexico City this week with a bipartisan Senate
delegation to discuss the drug war, trade and development along the border
and immigration and labor.

The group of senators, led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm,
R-Texas, focused on a work-permit proposal that would give up to 8 million
undocumented Mexicans the legal right to work in the United States.

Domenici said he will urge President-elect George W. Bush to meet with Fox
"sooner rather than later" on border issues. Mexican officials in
Albuquerque said Bush's experience as the former governor of Texas -- a
border state like New Mexico -- is a positive element for relations between
the two countries.

Fox wants the United States to kill a law requiring the president to issue
an annual drug certification ruling for Mexico and other drug-producing
countries. Decertified countries face losing military and economic aid.

Opponents of the certification say the process is adversarial and harmful
to foreign relations.

"I suggested ... that the law should be abolished and that it was a relic
that we don't need," Domenici said from his Albuquerque office. "(Fox)
obviously was full of enthusiasm with that statement and in total accord."

Gov. Gary Johnson's push to decriminalize drugs hasn't entered discussions
with Mexico, Domenici said.

Jaime Paz y Puente, the consul of Mexico in Albuquerque, said Johnson
likely won't have much of an impact.

"I believe that the question of decriminalization is an internal New Mexico
issue," he said.

Domenici said Fox and border czar Ernesto Ruffo support a proposed Santa
Teresa transportation center that is expected to benefit the region,
including a 40,000-acre planned development immediately across the border.

Mexico is building a 17-mile bypass that skirts Ciudad Juarez and links
northbound traffic to the San Jeronimo Highway, which leads to the Santa
Teresa port.

Domenici said development along the border places labor and immigration at
the forefront of U.S.-Mexico relations. The senators and Fox want a
guest-worker program, managed by both countries, that would give Mexicans
in the United States the same rights as their American counterparts.

"Workers will be able to come and work, go back to Mexico to continue their
lives with their families and continue to benefit Mexican society," Paz y
Puente said.