Mexican President Vicente Fox blindsided George W. Bush during the opening moments of Fox's state visit last week. In what was supposed to be a platitude-drenched photo-op, Fox challenged the US to reach an agreement on immigration reform by the end of the year. At the heart of the issue are several million Mexicans living and working illegally in the US. Fox called on the US to take a "realistic approach to migration," that respects "the human dignity of all migrants, regardless of their (legal) status."

Bush responded by not responding. He replied to reporters' questions on the matter with "shut up," and "I can't hear you."

The State Department later clarified. "We've got to do it right, not fast," became an official mantra. Bush followed up later by stating the Immigration issue is "complex," and it will take time to get US political consensus.

Bush is referring to his own party when he speaks about the difficulty of reaching consensus. Democrats reportedly support a broad amnesty for all Latino immigrants. The Republicans say that they have questions about rewarding illegal behavior, about unfairness to legal immigrants properly going through the system, about encouraging even more illegal immigration. The right's support for reform is largely relegated to "guest worker" programs, that allow foreign workers to work while denying them residency (and living wages, and safe working conditions, and unionization).

That's probably not what Fox had in mind by "realistic." He faces growing disillusionment at home with his once-promised change. Campaigning on a promise of sweeping change and a new beginning, he has since become bogged down in the real problems he vowed to address.

During his campaign Fox claimed he could solve the Chiapas situation "in 15 minutes." Once in office, he pulled back troops and sent an indigenous rights bill to the congress. The rights bill was hijacked by his own party, the rightwing PAN, who pushed through their own version, stripped of the key reforms the original bill was designed to implement. The altered bill has subsequently been ratified in enough states to become law. The law remains hopelessly divisive and is being challenged legally and politically. Opposition parties are pushing loud for its repeal, replaced by a true indigenous rights' law. Negotiations with the Zapatistas aren't anywhere on the horizon. The countryside is in an uproar.

A vocal indigenous farmers' movement recently went, several thousand strong, to Mexico city to demonstrate and block streets and government buildings. Demanding an end to NAFTA and its devastating impact on Mexican agriculture, the Mexico City demo was just one of many similar demonstrations that have taken place throughout rural Mexico on an ongoing basis.

Cheap corn flooding in from the US, and the IMF-inspired removal of farm subsidies, have pushed whole regions into ruin. Farming towns in regions of the south, in Veracruz and Oaxaca, are depopulated as the inhabitants depart to seek work in the US.

Corn, of course, was domesticaed in Mexico over 7,000 years ago. Having subsequently spread throughout the world, farmers, whose families have been cultivating corn since before the Egyptian Pyramids were built, are now being told by Fox to change to something else, because corn can now be gotten cheaper from the US. They're not happy about it.

The Zapatistas are not Mexico's most dangerous guerilla force. The FARP and the ERP, among others, eschewing the Zapatistas' nonviolent approach, are small but growing threats. They have conducted several attacks on police and other government and corporate installations. A recent spate of bombings of Banamex buildings in Mexico City was claimed by the FARP as a response to that bank's sale to Citigroup. "The sale of Banamex is not a simple tax-free stock deal. It is a criminal act that lacerates and offends the dignity and decorum of the Mexican people."

In addition, Fox has been plagued by financial scandals big and small. The Banamex sale aroused widespread ire in part because Mexico's citizens had only recently paid billions to bail out the banks in the aftermath of scandal and mismanagement--only to have almost all of them sold to the US, cheaply.

Bush has made the US/Mexico relationship a keystone of his foreign policy. Part of this showy diplomacy is no doubt on account of Mexico being the one country Bush might posses some knowledge about, making it the perfect match.

But Mexico is demanding increasing attention. In the grand schemes of globalization, from the US view, Mexico plays a key role, not just as a handy source of cheap labor, untapped markets, and raw materials. Mexico is positioning itself as the economic powerhouse of Central America. Fox intends to make sure the globalized Mexico is a player. He recently launched his ambitious "Plan Puebla Panama," to transform Central America into a vast Free Trade Zone, a combination of interoceanic transportation links, maquiladoras, and plantations. In preparation, he has forged trade agreements with his Latin American neighbors. His administration is working closely with the US to stem illegal immigration from Central America into both countries.

Both leaders have a stake in immigration reform. Bush has his own Latino constituency to court, if nothing else. Perversely, the greatest obstacle to that reform comes from their own respective parties. Fox's PAN blocks indigenous rights reform, which addresses the conditions that spur illegal immigration in the first place. Bush's Republicans take a hard line on immigration on this side of the border. And the story continues.