Fox, with Gov. Davis, pushed business opportunities in Mexico, saying its workers are "the most productive and the best quality."
Tucson, Arizona Friday, 23 March 2001
The Associated Press
By Ben Fox
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FRESNO, Calif. - Migrant workers, sometimes scorned at home and ignored in the United States, were celebrated as heroes yesterday by Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Nearly 3,000 people, including many in the white cowboy hats favored by field workers, listened intently and cheered wildly as Fox came to the center of the state's agriculture industry to praise them and promise to work on issues that matter most in their lives.
He pledged to push Mexico's Congress to allow people to vote outside the country by the 2003 legislative elections, to work with U.S. officials on a solution to long-standing disputes over immigration, and to make it easier for the expatriates to return home.
"You are important, believe me, very important," Fox told the audience in Fresno's convention center, as cheers drowned out his next few words.
Such talk is a change of course for Mexican leaders. The money sent home by expatriates is one of Mexico's largest sources of income.
But the country's leaders have done little to court the men and women who fled their homes to work long hours and difficult jobs in the United States.
Fox campaigned in California last May and views the expatriates as a source of financial and moral support for his right-of-center National Action Party and its legislative agenda.
Fox's visit to Fresno drew about 100 protesters. Angel Noriega said both the Mexican president and Gov. Gray Davis could do more for immigrants.
"Things are better than before, but we're waiting for more," Noriega said.
After the morning rally, Fox visited a suburban Los Angeles elementary school in San Fernando with first lady Laura Bush.
Speaking at Morningside Elementary School, Fox asked Mrs. Bush to use her influence to help Mexicans working in the United States get an affordable university education.
Mrs. Bush listened without comment, but told The Associated Press afterward that the federal government should not be involved.
"I think that's something that's really left up to the state," she said.
Davis, who accompanied Mrs. Bush and Fox to the school, has said it would be too expensive to offer in-state tuition to non-citizens.
Still, Fox's plea won repeated standing ovations from the largely Hispanic crowd of parents.
At the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, Fox was met by about two dozen protesters who lined the street waved American flags and shouted slogans against immigration.
Inside, during a meeting of Town Hall Los Angeles, a nonprofit group that hosts speeches by prominent international figures, Fox told local business leaders that the United States and Mexico are partners and called for greater investments in his nation.
Fox was greeted with a standing ovation and prolonged applause by the 100 people at the event after being introduced by Davis as "a president of vision, a man of the people and a great friend of California."
Fox began his remarks with a brief introduction in Spanish then delivered his speech in strongly accented but clear English. He devoted much of his talk to lobbying American investors to consider business opportunities in Mexico.
Davis noted in Fresno that more than a third of California's 34 million residents are of Mexican descent.
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