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Mexico's Fox denounces border fences
By UPI Staff
United Press International
May 24, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox is telling U.S. audiences during a visit that building border fences isn't the solution to the problem of illegal immigrants.

Speaking on his first of four days in the United States, Fox on Tuesday told about 800 Mexican-Americans at a cultural center outside of Salt Lake City that Mexico wants to be part of the solution, and not the problem, the Deseret Morning News reported.

"We don't set up walls," Fox said in Spanish. "It is not with fences we are going to solve this problem, but hand-in-hand ... We are neighbors, we are friends, and we are partners."

Fox canceled a news conference and would not reply to media questions, the newspaper said.

Fox traveled to Washington state Wednesday and he was to meet with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles later in the week, The Los Angeles Times reported.

His visit comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on its version of an immigration reform package. The House bill, passed in December, is more stringent, although both chambers have agreed on building border fences.

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