Mexicans irritated by Bush's plan for border troops

MEXICO CITY — Mexicans chafed Monday at the notion that President Bush wants to send National Guard troops to help enforce the U.S.-Mexico border, even as President Vicente Fox tried to downplay the seriousness of the move.

Many said the Guard troops could do little to stop determined migrants from finding unguarded places to cross the 2,000-mile border. Neither would the Guard do anything to solve the deeper issues behind the migration, they said.

Some were offended at a "militarization" they thought more appropriate for the border between openly hostile countries and feared that troops could become a permanent presence redefining the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

"It's worrying," said Arturo Solis, an immigrant-rights activist in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. "The bad thing is that the American government is insisting on confusing immigration with a criminal problem."

The move reminded some historians of 1913, when President William Taft sent troops to the Texas border. Mexico was in the midst of a chaotic revolution, and Taft was warning Mexican generals and rebels not to harm U.S. interests south of the border.

The U.S. Army invaded Mexico in 1916 after revolutionary Pancho Villa and his men raided the border town of Columbus, N.M.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said that Bush and Fox agreed that "the border problem" needs "an integral solution, not a police solution."

Some criticized Fox for appearing to acquiesce to Bush's Guard plan. Some saw an ulterior motive — that Fox wants to help Bush persuade Congress to pass a wider immigration overhaul before Mexico's July 2 presidential election, which would allow Fox to claim success and help his party's candidate, Felipe Calderon.