By Mary Jordan and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY -- The new Mexican government plans to urge the Bush administration to change U.S. immigration policy to allow far more Mexicans to enter the
United States legally and give a new legal status to those now working there illegally.

The Mexican proposals, although still tentative, constitute the first test for a pledge of better cross-border relations -- in particular on the issue of immigration --
adopted by President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox at an effusive summit meeting in Fox's hometown of San Cristobal on Feb. 16.

Fox's ideas will be presented to U.S. officials at a high-level meeting in Washington on Wednesday, the first of what is expected to be a series of negotiations in
pursuit of an improved immigration relationship. In a sign of the importance of this goal, Bush has assigned Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Attorney General
John Ashcroft to represent the United States and Fox has assigned Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castaneda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel.

Castaneda said Mexico has four main areas of concern: "regularizing" conditions for illegal workers; improving safety for Mexicans crossing the border, who face
dangers ranging from dehydration to vigilantes; raising the number of permanent visas the United States allots to Mexico; and creating a guest worker program that
would ensure decent working conditions.

"We are not saying that we want all the rights to become available to Mexicans overnight," Castaneda said. "It is not all or nothing."

Mexican officials said Fox wants to focus on step-by-step, practical improvements in the lives of Mexican immigrants in the United States, such as the ability to get a
driver's license, rent an apartment or -- most important -- live without fear of expulsion by U.S. authorities.

In an interview, Fox stressed that he is not necessarily seeking permanent residency or U.S. citizenship for these people, just a status that allows them to remain
legally in the United States for a certain time to work and to enjoy other legal rights and protections.

"Their jobs must be recognized, must be legalized," he said. "And this does not have anything to do with them becoming Americans. Maybe they don't even want to
become Americans. They just want to work."

Fox's approach marks a sharp departure for the Mexican government. In the past, it has said illegal immigration is a response to the economic situation here and in
the United States -- and is largely Washington's to deal with. But Fox has promised to be leader not just of the people in Mexico but of Mexicans living in the United
States.

Bush, who developed an expertise in the situation of Mexican immigrants as governor of Texas, also has encouraged new approaches to immigration.

"This is the first time the Mexican and American presidents have agreed to actually put immigration on the table and see what might come out of it," said Demetrios G.
Papademetriou, a specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

U.S. officials said they have not yet seen the Mexican proposals but, in the spirit of the Bush-Fox summit meeting, everything is on the table as the talks begin.

Any plan emerging from the negotiations to change the legal status of undocumented workers would need approval in Congress, where there is resistance to more
generous immigration laws. But Mexican officials are encouraged by the fact that past foes of expanded immigration programs, such as Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.),
support allowing more Mexicans into the country legally. Gramm plans to sponsor a guest worker program permitting more Mexicans to work legally for a limited
time period -- without placing them on the track toward citizenship.

One of the most significant shifts in the immigration debate is a matter of letters: Instead of what they refer to as "the A-word," amnesty, both sides are now talking
about "the R-word," regularization.

Critics of immigration oppose the idea of granting amnesty, the first step toward permanent residency and citizenship, to people who have broken U.S. laws by
sneaking into the country. But Fox and his top aides are trying to avoid that highly charged fight by focusing on the still evolving concept of regularization -- ensuring
better living conditions and basic health, education and labor rights for illegal immigrants while they are in the country.

Fox, in the interview, said the status of "illegal immigrants who are contributing productively, with quality, to the U.S. economy" must be changed. Fox said it is
imperative to give Mexican workers "access to rights of working people so they would not need to be hiding away."

The numbers in hiding are huge. The new U.S. census suggests that there may be far more than the previous estimate of 6 million undocumented workers in the
United States, more than half of whom are Mexican. The Mexican Embassy estimates that in the Washington area alone there are about 30,000 Mexican immigrants,
legal and illegal.

What Fox and Bush are ultimately steering toward is a better life for people such as Rosa, an office cleaner in Alexandria, who lives a life framed by no's.

No, the Mexican immigrant cannot rent an apartment. No, she cannot open a bank account. No, her husband, an electrician, has no guarantee he will be paid fairly, if
at all. And no, there is no escaping the fear that she or her husband could be deported at any moment by immigration officials, known by two of the scariest words in
Mexican Spanish, la migra.

"If they grab him, how will we survive?" asked Rosa, a tall, big-boned mother of three, wearing blue jeans and sneakers, who has been working illegally in the
Washington area for six years.

For fear of being forced to leave Alexandria, which has recently become a hub for Mexican immigrants, she declined to give her last name.

For Rosa, 31, citizenship is a distant dream. Her more immediate wish is a Social Security number, a "social" as she calls it, allowing her and her husband to seek
better jobs and an escape from the shadows.

She and her husband entered the country on tourist visas with their three young children and moved in with Rosa's sister in Alexandria. At one point about 30
relatives lived in the small apartment.

She and her husband decided to take the savings from under the mattress and find a home of their own. Instead they found humiliation. One Northern Virginia
apartment complex after the next turned them away for lack of a Social Security number.

"I'd like to have a social to be able to rent, to get credit, to go to the clinic," she said dreamily. "We Mexicans are the ones who work the most . . . we'd like to be
regularized."

Juan Hernandez, head of the office of Mexicans living abroad, a position created by Fox, said there is no denying Mexicans are breaking the law by entering the
United States without proper papers. But he said the current system encourages them "to keep on breaking more laws" by, for example, making it impossible for
them to drive legally or to buy insurance.

Hernandez cited one case of how a small change can make a big difference. After lobbying from the Mexican government, many American credit unions recently
dropped their practice of requiring a Social Security number to open accounts. They immediately started attracting illegal Mexican residents who can also use the
credit unions' expanding network of ATMs in Mexico as a way to send money back home.

Illegal workers have been paying couriers to hand-carry cash across the border or wiring the money at great expense. An estimated $7 billion a year is sent to
Mexico each year by Mexicans working in the United States.

Sheridan reported from Washington.

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