Mexico: Holy Toledo!(American visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox)(Brief Article)

President Vicente Fox of Mexico came to the United States like a campaigning politician, as indeed he was. Mindful that many Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, are not yet rooted in this country, and are still potential voters in his, he offered a glowing picture of their homeland. "I want to tell you," he said to a crowd in Toledo, Ohio, "not only that we love you and respect you, but that we need you back in Mexico . . . to promote the growth of our great nation."

But President Fox knows he cannot deal with all of them coming home just yet. In fact, he would like more of them to leave, especially in a period of economic contraction: Their remittances do more for the Mexican economy than Pemex, and the social burden of the poor among them is much better left with the gringos. So he also said at the White House that "[t]he time has come to give migrants and their communities their proper place in the history of our bilateral relations. We must, and we can, reach an agreement on immigration before the end of this very year."

The end of this very year is only four months away. President Bush is laboring mightily to assure alarmed congressmen that he does not intend to amnesty 3 million Mexican illegals, even as the ...