US: Mexican president Vicente Fox kicked off a four-day US visit by decrying congressional proposals to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants in Mexico, saying, "We won't resolve this problem with fences, but hand in hand, working together."
Mr Fox on Tuesday evening told a cheering crowd of 1,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that they helped keep the US economy running and displayed the hard work and honesty that did their native country proud. "Even though you are far from Mexico, you are an integral part of Mexico," he said.
His visit, which took him to Washington state yesterday and to meetings with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa later in the week, comes during the Senate debate on immigration reform and after President Bush's proposal to station 6,000 National Guard troops at the border. The visit has stirred some resentment in Utah, a conservative state but with a history of tolerance for legal and illegal immigrants. Representatives of the Utah Minuteman Project, a group opposed to illegal immigration, protested outside a state dinner at the governor's mansion on Tuesday.