Illegal Aliens Back In Spotlight

After almost four years of minimal progress, Secretary of State Colin Powell says prospects are improving for congressional action to grant legal status to millions of undocumented aliens in the United States.

The immigration issue was high on Powell's agenda Tuesday as he headed into talks with President Vicente Fox and other senior Mexican officials.

Powell flew to Mexico with five fellow members of President Bush's Cabinet.

The Bush administration immigration reform proposal was unveiled in January, in an apparent bid for both the votes of Hispanics and segments of the U.S. business community that depend on low-wage workers. The Bush plan would provide legal status - but only temporarily - to many of the more than 8 million migrants who live in the United States without government approval.

Migrants would have to provide proof of employment to qualify and participation in the program would not give them any leg up on becoming permanent residents or citizens.

In the ten months since President Bush spelled out the proposal, however, it has failed to make any headway.

Powell said now that the election is over and since there has been substantial progress making the U.S.-Mexico border more secure after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "there could be a more favorable environment" for immigration reform legislation.

He acknowledged, however, that it is not yet clear how the new Congress taking office in January will deal with the issue.

Powell planned to spend several hours Tuesday with his colleagues grappling with a series of cross-border issues.

Mexico supports U.S. immigration reform, objecting to the precarious situation that many Mexicans in the United States without permission face despite their significant contributions to the U.S. economy. Last week, Mexican Interior Secretary Santiago Creel called U.S. migration policy "absurd."

Presidents Bush and Fox first broached the subject of immigration reform less than a month after Bush took office in 2001. Fox said last week he believes that 2005 may finally be the year when significant progress may be possible.

"Neither of our countries will be in elections next year," Fox observed. But Creel warned against "raising expectations beyond what is politically viable and really possible."

On hemispheric relations, Powell acknowledged there has been a shift to the left in several South American countries but said he is "not deeply troubled by it at all. I want to work with whoever the people elect in those countries."

He said it isn't shocking that people in the region are beginning to make different choices when they go to the polls if they haven't seen the kind of progress they were expecting.

As an example of the leftist trend, he cited the election two years ago of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, but he said Silva "has been acting quite responsibly with respect to economic and fiscal policy."

Powell reserved judgment on the implications of the leftist coalition that was elected last week in Uruguay.

By George Gedda