President Vicente Fox of Mexico recently said that he did not expect the United States to adopt reforms that would grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers until after the presidential election. Mr. Fox has praised Bush's proposal to give temporary work permits to an estimated eight million illegal immigrants, and expressed patience in terms of its implementation. The relationship between Mexico and the U.S. was strained after Sept. 11, when the Bush administration abandoned its promises to work on a migration accord with Mexico, but Bush's new immigration policy has improved the situation.
See "Grown Cautious, Fox Expects Delay on U.S. Action on Migrants", Ginger Thompson, The New York Times, March 3, 2004