GUATEMALA: U.S. President George W. Bush wraps up visit to Guatemala

U.S. President George W. Bush has wrapped up a visit to Guatemala with a joint news conference with President Oscar Berger during which the North American leader defended plans to seal off parts of the U.S. border with Mexico. President George W. Bush said on Monday (March 12) he wants a breakthrough on U.S. immigration reform by August but defended raids against illegal immigrants, a policy that drew criticism during his tour of Latin America. Bush discussed immigration and regional efforts against drug trafficking with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger after promoting free trade and U.S. anti-poverty efforts in a trip to the Mayan highlands. While the two leaders held a joint news conference hundreds of Guatemalans demonstrated outside the palace against Bush. The protestors burned an effigy of Bush and fired off firecrackers at police cordoning off the crowds. U.S. immigration policies are unpopular across much of Latin America, helping leftist leaders gain sway in the region. Berger, a conservative ally on most issues, made clear he also opposed Bush's stance on immigration. "President Bush has confirmed to me that there are no instructions to pursue undocumented Guatemalans (in the U.S.), except in situations when someone is acting outside of the law, which I have said on multiple opportunities, that a person should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but there are no intentions of pursuing undocumented Guatemalans," Berger said, standing next to Bush. About 18,000 Guatemalan illegal immigrants were deported from the United States last year, an increase of 60 percent from 2005. Most were caught soon after crossing the U.S. border but a quarter had been in the country more than a year. In New Bedford, Mass., dozens of young children were stranded at schools and with baby sitters last week after their parents were rounded up by federal authorities who raided a leather goods maker suspected of hiring illegal immigrants. Most were from Guatemala and El Salvador. "It is the against the law for somebody to hire somebody in our country illegally," Bush said. "Therefore the price is the result of law enforcement, that's why we can't say 'oh maybe they are Guatemalans and let's go get them', that wouldn't happen and so you know you got to understand that if we enforce the law, we'll do it in a fair way." But he said he hoped to get the Democratic-led Congress to make significant strides toward an immigration overhaul, including a temporary guest worker program, in coming months. He failed to get an overhaul through the Republican-led Congress last year due to conservative concerns about a porous U.S.-Mexico border. Whether Democrats in an uproar about the Iraq war will agree to an immigration deal is uncertain. Bush defended plans to seal off parts of the border with Mexico with a fence, saying it would give sceptical lawmakers confidence to back the guest worker program for immigrants. He also pushed for a regional deal to share information about increasingly powerful smuggling gangs who move drugs through Central America and Mexico into the United States. Bush, held in deep suspicion among many in Latin America, earlier promoted free trade and social justice on a day out in the Guatemalan countryside. Wearing a multicoloured traditional jacket, he lent a hand at the Labradores Mayas Packing Station cooperative begun by an indigenous farmer in the town of Chirijuyu. It was the penultimate stop on Bush's five-nation, Latin American tour, a trip in which he has been dogged along the way by thunderous denunciations from his leftist nemesis in the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

ITN Source | March 13, 2007

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