Mexican President Launches U.S. Tour

"President Felipe Calderon of Mexico will tour the United States [this] week, but he will avoid the White House, Capitol Hill and the presidential candidates, sticking instead to meetings with Mexican immigrants in major cities like New York as well as with a few local officials. That the president will have more meetings with his own countrymen than with officials in Washington reflects two political truths. First, Mexican migrants in the United States have become an extension of Mexico's own politics, and ignored only at great peril. Second, American officials have little use for meetings with President Calderon during an election year in which the subject of immigration has ignited strong emotions on the campaign trail," the New York Times reported. "Some political analysts and advocates for immigrants worry that Mr. Calderon may step on a political land mine on his trip. The three leading candidates for president — Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York — favor some form of a comprehensive bill to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. But if the Mexican president speaks out too forcefully against security measures on the border or tougher immigration policies, he could force the presidential candidates, who must cater to diverse and passionate views on immigration, to respond in a way that might hurt their campaigns."

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