For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 5, 2001
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice Discusses State Visit
Press Briefing by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
MS. PEREZ: Good afternoon and welcome to the White House
Briefing Room. Joining us here today is Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor
to President Bush, who will brief you on the meetings held thus far between Presidents Bush
and Mexican President Fox. Her briefing is on the record and on camera. She'll be happy to
take questions at the end.
Dr. Rice.
DR. RICE: Good afternoon. Well, any way that you
look at it, this has been a remarkable day as President Bush and President Fox have had an
opportunity to celebrate their remarkable and dynamic relationship. It's one that has
become really one of the most important for the United States in the eight months since
we've been here. And it's one that has a great bearing on the well-being of our people
since this is our neighbor.
After the arrival ceremony on the South Lawn this
morning, the President met privately with President Fox in the Oval Office. The two
Presidents then presided over an historic
joint Cabinet meeting. They heard
reports from various Cabinet officers about what we've achieved together and what we still
hope to achieve.
They covered fields as diverse as education, science, energy,
law enforcement, the
environment and
migration. The reports painted a
vivid and colorful picture of this very practical relationship, a relationship that goes on
365 days a year.
As the President has said, this is not a moment in time, this is
a commitment. I would put it a little bit differently in that I once heard that someone
said that international politics is inactivity punctuated by summits. Well, this is, in
fact, a summit that celebrates the fact that there is constant activity in this relationship
at all levels.
When he arrived this morning, President Fox emphasized the
importance of trust and respect as the foundation of the new levels of cooperation between
these two countries, and he's absolutely right. I think that attitude reflected by the two
Presidents has been the key to what we are achieving and hope to achieve in the future.
Thank you very much, and I'm happy to take questions.
Q Did the President, or his staff, know
before this morning that President Fox was going to challenge you to have an agreement by
the end of the year? And what do you think chances are that an agreement can be reached by
the end of the year?
DR. RICE: We were aware that President Fox had this
objective. And, indeed, we think that it would be terrific if we were able by the end of
the year to achieve agreement. The two Presidents have said that they believe that over the
term, their own terms, their respective terms, that they can make substantial progress in
this important area. They already have made some progress in this area. And we're going to
work as hard and as fast as we possibly can to achieve the goal.
Q What are the chances you'll get it done
by then?
DR. RICE: Well, we would be delighted if we can get
it done by the end of the year, and we're going to work very, very hard at it.
Q Dr. Rice, can you define what agreement
means? Does President Fox mean an agreement in principle between the two nations, with
legislative processes to move forward after that? Or is he talking about not only an
agreement in principle, but something the Congress deals with and passes and the President
signs by the end of the year?
DR. RICE: Well, we're going to now have follow-on
discussions with the Mexicans about how we proceed from here. But it's very clear they
already have some principles in place on which they agree about the importance of the safety
of the borders, about the importance of recognizing in an humanitarian way the contributions
of people who are living here in the United States and working, about the importance of
matching willing workers with willing employers.
And so there are some principles from which they can start
working, but I don't think that we want to try to pre-guess what final form we're going to
have here. We're just going to work at it as quickly as we can, and over the next several
weeks we'll be starting that process.
Q There's a crucial distinction, would not
you agree, and don't you have any sense what he's really driving at here?
DR. RICE: President Fox has made very clear that
over their terms -- and President Bush has made the same commitment -- that over their terms
they hope to make substantial progress on this extremely important issue.
It's obviously a complicated issue, as President Fox said in his
interview the other day. It's got a lot of elements to it, including the involvement of the
legislature. It has a lot of elements in it, including the involvement of the states. So
there is a lot of work to be done here, but they are committed to doing that work and to
moving as fast as possible to a system that will work better than the current system that we
have on migration.
Q Condi, some administration officials
have been talking about trying to do this -- I hate to use the phrase "piecemeal," but doing
it in a part -- sort of locking in progress along the way. President Fox seems to be
thinking of this as a grand agreement, or what Minister Castaneda calls "the whole
enchilada." Can you tell us, is there a difference in the sense at which this agreement
should be arrived and how it would be structured?
DR. RICE: Well, Jim, I don't want to try and put
words in President Fox's mouth on this, but let me just say that I heard him to say that
over their terms, he hoped that they could make substantial progress on this extremely
important issue, and leave something in place that gives us a more humane system than we
have now, a system that recognizes the contribution of Mexican workers in the United States
and so forth and so on.
The progress that we're making is obviously going to be step by
step. And we've already made progress in putting some principles together from which we
could work. Let me just remind everybody that the very thought that you have the Mexican
President and the President of the United States sitting down to systematically talk about
migration and how to deal with this
issue is a breakthrough in and of itself.
This is an issue that has not been comfortable in the bilateral
relationship. You have here two men who are comfortable talking about this issue, who
recognize its importance, and who are committed to doing something good during their terms.
That in itself is a breakthrough.
Q People who oppose this whole concept
you're working on say it's amnesty. And for folks who may not have followed it that
closely, how do you say it differs from amnesty, and what do you say to their argument that
whatever you're doing might reward people who have broken our laws?
DR. RICE: The principals recognize that it is
important to have a legal structure. You might have noticed, for instance, that President
Fox also said that he thought it was important that we stem the flow of people coming from
Mexico into the United States illegally. So I do not think this is someone who is saying,
we just want to open up the gates; that there is a recognition that there is a legal way to
do this.
President Bush has also said, family values don't stop at the Rio
Grande. You have to recognize that there are people in this country who came because of
poverty and the desire to work, and that their contributions need to be recognized. But
nobody is suggesting that we simply throw away the legal framework here.
It is not -- there is no conception here of a general amnesty.
Neither President is talking in those terms. I think that's extremely important to put on
the record, that this is not talk of an amnesty. It is talk of finding ways to recognize
the contributions of people who work very hard. It is a humane treatment issue. And
President Bush is going to work hard within the administration and with the Congress to find
a framework that serves us better than what we are dealing with now.
Q Tell us about the precedent-setting
nature of whatever deal you strike. Obviously, there are some groups, non-Mexican groups,
that feel that the United States immigration policy should not have preferences for Mexico
simply because it shares a border. Do you feel that whatever deal you strike, you openly
have to be prepared to spread to other countries that also seek to send their workers here?
DR. RICE: Well, David, one of the complexities of
this is that, of course, the United States is a magnet for immigrants worldwide. So it is a
complexity to figure out the relationship of what we do within our
NAFTA zone here, and what we do with
other countries. But I think those are exactly the kinds of issues that have to get worked
through.
I think that it is obvious that, with a border, the issues are
sometimes more intense and more immediate than with countries with which we do not share a
border. But it's obviously an issue that's going to have to get worked through. And, no,
we're not thinking of precedent, per se; but, of course, it's important to think of this in
a worldwide character, too.
Q If I could follow that up. You said,
"thinking in the NAFTA zone." Of course, one of the other initiatives you have is to spread
NAFTA, essentially, through the free trade area of the Americas. Would you foresee that in
time the immigration policy would also be spread with the free trade area of the Americas?
DR. RICE: Well, David, I think that's jumping a
little far ahead, at this point. Right now, the two Presidents are dealing with what is
really an extant problem, and they recognize that the system that we've had in place, that
the patterns of migration that we've had have serious problems associated with them.
And they're both committed -- and I want to emphasize both
committed -- to trying to work through those. After all, for Mexico, also, Mexico and
President Fox have laid out a vision that says one day people ought to find work in Mexico
-- if NAFTA really takes hold, if free trade really takes hold, if the Mexican economy
improves, Mexico would like to have circumstances in which it's able to take advantage of
its own talent. So this is a larger issue, but they are dealing with a migration system
that they both recognize has problems.
Q Two questions. What did the Presidents
say to each other about migration in their meetings, and what were they told in the Cabinet
meeting? And secondly, this phrase, recognizing the contributions of undocumented workers
-- does that imply that they have earned some special treatment by virtue of the fact that
they're working in the United States?
DR. RICE: No, it does not imply special treatment.
What it implies is that there are people who, as the President said, came here for reasons
with which everyone can sympathize and have been working here in the country, many of them
taking jobs that Americans will not take. There needs to be humane treatment and humane
understanding and compassion for that. But as to what that means within the structure of
any program that we might be able to come up with I think is something that still has to be
worked out.
Now, as to what the two Presidents said to each other, remember
that this is not a conversation that started today. This started really when they were
governors, but when the President met at
President Fox's ranch, all the way back, shortly after his inauguration, they talked
about this issue. And again, that conversation I think led to a series of meetings, headed by the Secretaries of State
and the Attorneys General, but it also led to the principles that you will see when they
release them tomorrow. So this has been steadily moving along. It's going to continue to
move along in a steady fashion. But they talked more about those principles.
The Cabinet officers then reported on the progress that they've
made. Everybody is committed on this issue.
Q Dr. Rice, the trucking issue is still a
sore spot. How deeply was this discussed, and do both Presidents see any solution to this
problem?
DR. RICE: Well, the President thinks that the
solution is to live up to our NAFTA
commitments. He is someone who is absolutely firmly committed to
trucking safety. And one thing that he
and President Fox recommitted to in their meeting is trucking safety. As the President
said, we don't want unsafe Mexican trucks on our highways; we're sure Mexico doesn't want
unsafe American trucks on their highways; we both have an obligation on safety. And so this
is a President who is committed to safety. He also believes, though, that the legislation
which passed is not attuned with our NAFTA commitment, and he's made very clear he does not
support it.
A follow-up? Yes?
Q Another important subject is the
economic situation in Latin America. With the U.S. economic situation not being so well,
Mexico is affected, but you also have a major problem in Argentina which is causing
contagion to Brazil, even to other Latin American countries. Did they discuss the economic
situation of the hemisphere?
DR. RICE: They discussed the region, they discussed
the economic situation in the hemisphere. Indeed, the President talked about his desire to
make sure that we do everything that we can to regenerate growth in the United States,
which, after all, is a problem for the region if the United States is not growing. And, of
course, his -- both his fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at doing his fiscal policies
and the monetary policy of the U.S. Central Bank is aimed at doing exactly that.
The President mentioned the importance of fiscal and budget
discipline in getting this done. He mentioned the importance of his tax cuts, and he is
doing what he can to bring about strengthening the American economy. And that will
obviously make it a lot better for all of Latin America.
They have talked on several occasions about
Argentina, which is in many ways the
most immediate case. As you well know, the IMF made available the funds to Argentina with
the understanding that Argentina is going to carry out its zero deficit program, and also
that Argentina is going to look hard at its debt sustainability issues. And there was a
kind of joint agreement that that is extremely important, and that they will be supportive
of Argentineans trying to do that.
Q Dr. Rice, were you aware that President
Fox today, at the ceremony, would lay down the challenge that immigration reform must be
done this year?
DR. RICE: As I said, we were aware that this was an
objective of President Fox. And so, the President shares the desire to do this as quickly
as possible, but to do it right. And we're going to work as fast as we possibly can to get
it done.
Q It sounds like while you oppose general
amnesty, you are seeking a way in which at least a portion or a fraction of the illegal
Mexicans in this country now will ultimately gain legal status. Now, the President has said
there's a way to do that without being unfair to Mexicans and people from other countries
who have followed the rules and have tried legally to immigrate. But it seems to me, by the
very definition, even if only a small portion of illegals are granted legal status, isn't
that unfair to those who have followed the rules?
DR. RICE: Well, one of the
principles is that there be a sense of
fairness and keeping intact a legal system for immigration. There are a lot of details to
work through here. This is a very complicated set of issues. And I just want to remind
everybody, this is a set of issues that, of course, the President has a deep commitment to.
He also wants to work, and needs to work with the Congress on this issue, because it's an
issue that's important to the American people at large.
So there are complicated issues to work through. I'm not going
to try to guess prior to exactly how this will all turn out, except to say that the
principle of fairness is there.
Q To follow up, isn't this really more
than a detail? Isn't this the very fundamental nub here? In other words, for each illegal
immigrant that's granted legal status, that displaces a would-be legal immigrant from
getting into this country?
DR. RICE: A lot is going to depend on what kind of
mechanisms we design, what kind of programs we design to deal with this problem. But let me
just remind everybody that the migration of structure as it is now is not functioning in a
way that these Presidents are comfortable with. And we do have undocumented people in the
country, and that's a reality.
So they're going to try to deal with all the various very
complicated and interrelated aspects of this to come to something that is more humane,
something that works for the American economy and for the Mexican worker, and something that
will hopefully put us on a better footing. And Mexico, I think, in President Fox's
statement, also accepted some responsibility for trying to stem the flow the other way. And
President Fox not only accepts that responsibility, but I think has a vision of how to do
that by improving conditions in Mexico. We shouldn't lose sight of that, as well.
Q One of the other challenges in President
Fox's speech this morning was that by the end of the term of the two Presidents, there would
be no more undocumented Mexicans in this country. That implies, obviously, perhaps some
going back, but some process or some of the undocumented Mexicans in this country would
obtain some kind of legal status. Was that, a, raised in the discussions again in the
Cabinet meeting and, b, what -- is that something that the U.S. is committed to now?
DR. RICE: There have been discussions of all of
these points by the various Cabinet
secretaries and, indeed, the Presidents, themselves, have talked about how to make this
work better. But what I think you really have to understand is that we understand the
complexity of this issue, and we understand that there are a lot of interrelated and moving
parts here.
And so, the Presidents have set out a goal. And that goal is
that they want a system of migration that is more orderly, that is more humane, that serves
the interest of both countries and their peoples better, and they've made a lot of progress
by putting out principles from which their folks can now work.
The specifics of how this will work or what the end state will
look like, I think we have to work through. But I just want to repeat to you: It is highly
unusual in the history of the United States and Mexico to have this so high at the top of
the bilateral agenda between Mexico and
the United States. That, in itself, is a big step forward.
Q I'm just get clarification that one of
the goals is to deal with those undocumented workers who are here in this country now.
DR. RICE: Obviously, we are going to have to do
something to try to deal with what is an established fact, which is that there are
undocumented workers in the United States. Exactly what that means, what mechanisms you can
use, how you can deal with it, I think has to be left to the discussions. But the
Presidents are committed to doing something that works better than today, and that is
humane, and that does serve the economic interests of both sides of the border.
Q If I can shift gears a little bit,
there's an article in the paper today and in Time Magazine this week that talks about the
diminished role of Cabinet members in this administration; Secretary Powell, in particular,
and you as a rising star and your influence with the President sort of overshadowing them.
What's your reaction to that?
DR. RICE: I think people have too much time to sit
around worrying about such things. Colin Powell is the Secretary of State, not me. Colin
Powell is the person who is the chief diplomat for the United States. He is the principal
voice on foreign policy. He is someone who the President respects and listens to all the
time. He has been a national security advisor, so I think he understands my role in trying
to make sure that the government is coordinated in what it's doing, and in making certain
that the President has what he needs to make good decisions.
But nobody should, by any means, be confused here. I'm not the
Secretary of State. The President doesn't need two secretaries of state. He's got a very
fine one. He's got one of stature. He's got one whom he respects, and who is respected at
home and abroad. And there should be no mistake about that. Colin Powell is the chief
foreign policy diplomat and chief foreign policy figure in this administration.
Q I just wanted to get clarification on
just this one point. When you said you were aware that President Fox had this objective, in
answering that way it seemed to me that you still were surprised that he brought it up this
morning the way he did.
DR. RICE: We knew he was going to bring it up during
this meeting. Do we sit and -- did he clear our remarks and we clear his? No. But I am
telling you that we knew that this was an objective of President Fox's.
Yes? Final question.
Q One of the principles that's been laid
out or talked about is the impact that this might have on American workers as well. Can you
shed any light on how the administrations are trying to figure out what sectors might be
affected, what labor groups might be affected? I mean, I know you may not have reached
conclusions, but can you shed any light into how you're trying to sort through that
particular aspect?
DR. RICE: It's one of the important issues to be
examined, to be dealt with. I mean, there has been a lot of work already by labor and by
INS on where people end up in what sectors, what sectors are underserved by American
employees. You know, we are not going to reinvent the wheel here. There's a lot of
research on this, and it will be brought to bear.
The President is absolutely determined that this is something
that works for both sides. And that means that it should be something that works for the
American economy and American workers, as well as improving the plight of Mexican workers.
But I just want to say that a healthy and functioning American
economy, and a healthy and functioning Mexican economy, is going to make all of this quite a
bit easier. It is in the interests of the United States to have a migration system in place
that can help to marry up workers with employers where that is necessary, and we're working
very hard on it. But it doesn't have to be invented from scratch; a lot of this is already
known.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Q Anything on drugs?
DR. RICE: I think that it's fair to say that there
was a rather ringing endorsement of the cooperation on counternarcotics, on the changed attitude
in Mexico about concerns about the high profile criminal element in drug and
counternarcotics. And for our part, Attorney General Ashcroft sounded a lot of satisfaction
with the cooperation that he's getting.