MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- The two top Democrats in the U.S. Congress
                 gave their strongest endorsement yet Saturday of Mexican proposals for a
                 more open border with the United States, and said they would forge ahead
                 with immigration reform early next year.

                 Speaking on the second day of their three-day visit to Mexico, Senate Majority
                 Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority leader Richard Gephardt said that they
                 were ready to push immigration reform, including some kind of legalization for
                 Mexican migrants already living in the United States.

                 Such reforms "are very consistent with fighting against terrorism," Gephardt, from
                 Missouri, told a news conference after meeting with President Vicente Fox.

                 "If you are regularizing status you are also understanding the people you are dealing
                 with are not terrorists," Gephardt said, noting that those who would benefit are
                 "people who have been in the United States for a long time, paid taxes, obeyed the
                 laws and been very good citizens."

                 Daschle, from South Dakota, said it was likely that discussion on the reforms could
                 be held "early in the second session" of Congress in 2001. He said legalization
                 would not be equivalent to a broad amnesty.

                 "Amnesty connotes a blanket approach to a large group of people," Daschle said.
                 "In this case, regularization or legalization would require a background check, an
                 investigatory effort ... a difference that would have to be emphasized.

                 "The opportunity for us to investigate and expel those who ought not be there is
                 something we want to deal with, too," he said.

                 Following meetings earlier Saturday with Fox and top Mexican officials, the two
                 lawmakers said they also were interested in a European Union-style program of
                 public investments and more open borders.

                 "I think that it ought to be our goal that we have a free pass border at some point in
                 the future," Daschle told a news conference.

                 Daschle's office later said he was not endorsing any particular program, but rather
                 supported having the same freedoms on the Mexican border as those that exist on
                 the Canadian border. Canadians do not need visas to enter the United States;
                 Mexicans do.

                 "I think it's unlikely that we will obtain that goal anytime in the short term," Daschle
                 said. "(But) if the United States and Canada have a border like that, we ought to
                 have the opportunity to have that kind of border with Mexico as well."

                 Fox, facing troubles at home on both economic and political fronts, desperately
                 needs to make some headway on gaining better treatment for Mexican migrants to
                 the United States, a central policy goal of his administration.

                 Daschle and Gephardt said Mexico's concerns hadn't fallen from the U.S. agenda in
                 the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

                 "We want as quickly as possible to return to our common agenda," Gephardt said.

                 "Our commitment (to bilateral issues) is every bit as strong as what it was on
                 September 10," Daschle said, noting that the U.S. Congress is expected to vote in
                 the next few days to suspend "for at least one year" the anti-drug certification
                 program that has angered Mexicans.

                 The certification procedure required the State Department to pass judgment on
                 other countries' anti-drug efforts and threatened the loss of financial aid for nations
                 that failed the test.

                 Mexicans, and many other Latin Americans, considered that an affront to their
                 sovereignty. Mexican Interior Secretary Santiago Creel praised that step after
                 meeting with the congressmen, noting "you can't work well with unilateral
                 measures that only come from one country."

                 Also Saturday, Gephardt said more government investment was needed in border
                 areas, and he supported a proposal that Fox has long touted: that the two countries
                 follow the European example of reducing gaps between rich and poor countries.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.