President Bush meets Friday at his Texas ranch with Mexican President Vicente Fox. Immigration issues will be high on the agenda. Mexico is particularly interested in President Bush's proposed guest worker program.
The proposal, which must be approved by the U.S. Congress, would give temporary legal status to immigrants who, in essence, can prove they have a job in the United States.
Mr. Bush made an appeal for the plan Thursday in California, one of the states trying to deal with an influx of illegal immigrants, many of them from Mexico.
"We need a temporary worker plan that is not an amnesty plan," he said. "It is a worker plan to make sure employers here in America are able to find the labor that other Americans won't do in a legal way!"
In addition to immigration matters, Presidents Bush and Fox are also expected to talk about water rights and the ongoing dispute over Mexicans convicted of crimes and facing the death penalty in the United States.