ANDREA SEABROOK, host:
Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, starts a visit to the United States, today, but he will not be meeting with President Bush or anyone else in the administration, nor will Calderon share time with any presidential candidate. Instead, he'll tour several U.S. cities with large Mexican immigration populations - New York, Chicago and Los Angeles among them.
While he's staying clear of U.S. politicians, Calderon is quoted in the New York Times as saying he hopes the next American president and members of Congress would have a wider, more positive, more rational vision of the immigration issue.
That story was written by New York Times Mexico City Correspondent James C. McKinley, Jr. He's on the line there. Hello there, Jim McKinley.
Mr. JAMES C. MCKINLEY (Mexico City Correspondent, New York Times): Hello.
SEABROOK: What does Calderon say the point of his visit to the U.S. is if he's not meeting with any American officials?
Mr. MCKINLEY: Well, he's very coy on that subject but it's clear that what he wants to do is to tell the migrant groups here in the United States, or there in the United States rather, that they're not alone, that the Mexican government understands that they've been through a very tough year with this crackdown on illegal immigration and that Mexican government will do what it can to protect their civil rights as they go through all these deportations and the separation of families and other things that happen when the United States government cracks down on illegal immigrants.
SEABROOK: How important is that population of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. to the political scene in Mexico?
Mr. MCKINLEY: It's quite important. They send billions of dollars home every year in remittances. And they also voted overwhelmingly for Calderon. Mexico allowed their expatriates to vote in the last election, and about 69 percent, I believe, of that vote went for President Calderon.
So it's a constituency that he cannot ignore, and it's a constituency that has felt a bit abandoned by him in his first year. Most Mexican presidents do visit the United States in their first year in office because the United States is so important to them. And he has been very busy here with some other crises.
SEABROOK: Do you think that President Calderon declined to meet with the Bush administration or the other way around?
Mr. MCKINLEY: Well, his aides say that they tried to set up a meeting with Bush but the agendas couldn't be worked out. Whether that's true or not, who knows?
SEABROOK: And what about the candidates?
Mr. MCKINLEY: The candidates, I don't think he even tried to set up those meetings. It's just too risky politically for the candidates and also for him right now. He will be asked, I'm sure, questions about the wall that's being built along the border, he will be asked questions about the crackdown on illegal immigrants. And he will be bound both by his convictions and by political necessity here to say that the wall is an affront to Mexicans, as he has said in the past, and to say that the crackdown is - essentially violates the rights of many Mexicans living in the United States.
And when he says things like that, of course the candidates are forced to respond and that can sometimes be tricky for them. So he and his aides say that it's better politics right now not to be seen as meddling in the presidential race.
SEABROOK: Mexico's President Calderon said to you in an interview that's in the New York Times this weekend, quote, "What is clear to me is that in Latin America and in the world, for some reason the United States has been losing friends, and it seems to me it should do everything possible to reach out to the few friends it has left."
Sure sounds likes he feels he's in a position of strength here. What does President Calderon want?
Mr. MCKINLEY: He wants more cooperation from the United States in ending the drug trade, or at least slowing it down. Also he has a very wide vision of what the North American Free Trade Agreement means. He feels that the only way the Americas will ever compete with China and Europe is to integrate the economies of the Western Hemisphere and have a free flow of both commerce and labor across borders.
He feels that the United States in recent years has been preoccupied with events in the Middle East, hasn't spent enough time paying attention to the countries in Latin America. And some of these countries are beginning to forge alliances with China or with Europe or are beginning to forge alliances among themselves and leaving the United States out completely.
SEABROOK: James C. McKinley, Jr. is the Mexico City correspondent of the New York Times. Thanks very much.
Mr. MCKINLEY: Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
