Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush, in the "Guanajuato Proposal" issued following their meeting in February, characterized migration as one of the major ties that bind Mexico and the United States. Accordingly, our respective policies should work to create a process of orderly migration that guarantees humane treatment of migrants, provides protection of their legal rights, ensures acceptable work conditions for migrants and also recognizes the right of nations to control the flow of people across their borders.
For this purpose, the two Presidents directed the Secretary of State and the Attorney General of the United States, and the Secretaries of Foreign Relations and of the Interior of Mexico, to engage in formal high-level discussions to reach short and long-term agreements on migration and labor issues between Mexico and the United States. Both governments recognize that migration and its relationship with border safety are a shared responsibility.
The initial meeting of the High Level Working Group on Migration occurred in Washington, DC on April 4. The two sides began talks aimed at achieving the goal of safe, legal, orderly and humane migration as set forth by our Presidents in Guanajuato. The binational agenda includes discussion of border safety, the H-2 temporary worker visa program, ideas on regularization of undocumented Mexicans in the United States, alternatives for possible new temporary worker programs, and efforts on regional economic development.
The tragic deaths of fourteen Mexican migrants in the Arizona desert in May highlighted the pressing need for coordinated efforts to ensure safe and legal movement between Mexico and the U.S., and for considering and evaluating the potentials and consequences of expanded avenues for legal entries of Mexican nationals to the U.S.
A binational working group met June 6 in San Antonio, Texas, to address border cooperation and safety. A second meeting took place on June 8 in Washington to continue our discussions of all migration-related issues on the binational agenda and to establish a timeframe for future action. As a result of these meetings, we agreed to increase immediately existing efforts to ensure safety on the border and to review our respective border policies in order to develop ways to accomplish our common goal of reducing risks and eliminating deaths of migrants along the border.
These unprecedented cooperative efforts will be guided by a plan of action whose progress and implementation will be subject to regular review and evaluation. We have instructed our respective border authorities to implement immediately the following actions:
In order to coordinate special bilateral efforts to protect lives during the summer season, Mexican and U.S. officials held meetings in Tucson, Arizona, on June 14 and will hold additional meetings in the next several weeks in high-risk areas of California (San Diego and Calexico) and Texas (El Paso and Laredo).
We are committed to making progress in preparing a comprehensive package of possible alternatives to address all migration-related issues on the binational agenda for consideration by our two Presidents when they meet in Washington in September.