By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Visiting Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox was praised yesterday by Vice President Al Gore as a man with "big ideas, very large ideas." Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush also lauded Fox but said the United States must do a better job of protecting its southern border against illegal migration.
Fox met with Gore at his home on the grounds of the Naval Observatory and with President Clinton at the White House. He planned a meeting with Bush in Dallas tomorrow.
The Bush statement on immigration contrasted with Fox's vision of border relations. He has called for the eventual creation of an open border between the United States and Mexico. Bush, on a flight from Austin to New Orleans, said, "I believe we ought to enforce our borders."
He said he will elaborate on that point in a speech he is planning tomorrow.
Leon Fuerth, Gore's national security adviser, said Gore found aspects of Fox's open-border proposals "very problematic" for the United States. Gore listened respectfully to Fox's ideas and said implementation would take 25 to 30 years, Fuerth said.
He added that Gore outlined for Fox his concept of a "hemispheric community of democracies," a proposal Gore first broached in a speech in Mexico City in 1993.
Gore and Fox conferred as they walked alone on the grounds of the residence, then briefed their respective staffs on their conversation.
Before Clinton met with Fox, national security adviser Sandy Berger said in response to a question about the open-borders proposal that the United States has an obligation to enforce its laws against illegal immigration.
But Berger, making the same point as Gore, noted that Fox has never intended his proposal to be implemented over the short term. Rather, Berger said, Fox sees that as a goal that could be implemented once wage levels between the two countries are more comparable - 20 or 30 years from now.
Later, Fox greeted Clinton in the Rose Garden, and thanked him for the support he offered at the time of the financial crisis that struck Mexico five years ago.
"When we were in crisis, we always got and saw the hand of a friend," Fox said.
Clinton said it was a "great honor" to meet with Fox, adding that his election was a "truly historic affirmation of democracy" in Mexico.
Fox has decried the billions the United States spends each year trying to keep Mexicans off U.S. soil. His open-border plan would be part of a broader goal of achieving greater integration between the two countries.
Bush said Fox has not fully explained his position. "I need to know more about what he's referring to," Bush said.
He softened his remarks by saying that, if elected, he will have "a good long-term relationship" with Fox, who takes office Dec. 1. Bush, who has met Fox several times, described him as "an interesting man. He's a big, strong man, a charismatic fellow."
Gore received Fox at the official vice presidential residence, calling him a man with "big ideas, very large ideas" for transforming cross-border relations.
Fox's proposal for an eventual opening of borders with United States has been greeted with skepticism by U.S. business and labor groups, but Clinton said Wednesday he wants to hear more before making a judgment.
"The devil is always in the details here, so I want to talk to him about it and see what he has in mind," Clinton said.
In Canada on Wednesday, Fox spoke to Prime Minister Jean Chretien about his goal of an integrated North America modeled in some respects after the European Union.
Chretien said he doesn't think it is feasible.
"We cannot establish relations between Canada, the United States, and Mexico in the same type of situation as in Europe," he said, adding that Canada wanted to maintain its own currency and refused to consider a common currency like the euro.
Fox said his goal was to promote prosperity, no matter the mechanism.
"We are not proposing a common currency here," he said. "We don't think that would work. We're proposing to work together - work on human development, economic development - to narrow the differences."
Despite reservations about his border proposals, Fox has won admiring comments from many Americans for having defeated the party that has run Mexico for more than 70 years.
