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Mexican President Vicente Fox came to the US in May 2006, touring the only Hispanic-owned apple warehouse in Washington, G&G Orchards. Rene Garcia said that all G&G workers were legal, but estimated that 90 percent of Yakima valley farm workers were unauthorized. He said that growers are nervous about the supply of pickers for 2006 because "We're not seeing the people circulating around looking for jobs."

Hispanics are 40 percent of Yakima county residents, up from 20 percent in the mid-1980s. There were an estimated 26,000 jobs in the Yakima valley pruning, thinning and harvesting and packing fruit in 2005. The Washington State Migrant Council http://www.wsmconline.org/) provides Head Start and other services to local farm worker children.

Fox called the immigration reform bill approved by the US Senate in May 2006 a ''monumental step forward'' and "the moment that millions of people have been working for." Fox said that Mexico is committed to "expanding jobs in Mexico and promoting economic growth and social opportunities so that migration is no longer a necessity."

There are about 11 million Mexican-born persons in the US. Mexico's National Population Council says that Mexico would have 123 million residents rather than 107 million without this emigration and the emigrants' US-born children. The NPC projects that 400,000 to 500,000 Mexicans will migrate to the US for the next 25 years, but the real uncertainty is whether Mexico will be rich enough to support an aging society. Most countries grew rich before they aged, so Mexico will be a pioneer in how poor countries support aging populations.

As the Senate debated immigration reform in May 2006, Mexicans debated how to respond. All major candidates for president denounced plans to build additional fences on the Mexico-US border, but some Mexican researchers began to shift the blame for Mexico-US migration from the US, whose demand for labor attracts migrants, to Mexico's slow development and lack of jobs. Jorge Santib ¤ez, president of the College of the Northern Border in Tijuana, was quoted in the New York Times on May 25, 2006 as saying: "For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes... And it has boasted about the growth in remittances as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure" to develop Mexico.

Former foreign minister Jorge G. Casta¤eda said that, if the US offers "sufficient" guest worker visas, Mexico could cooperate to reduce illegal migration by giving welfare benefits to mothers whose husbands stayed in Mexico or returned as required by their temporary visas, scholarships for high school students with both parents at home, and taking away ownership of land of those absent from their property for extended periods of time.

Oregon. The sheriff of Umatilla County in northeastern Oregon in 2006 requested $300,000 from the Mexican government to cover the costs of jailing unauthorized Mexicans. The number of unauthorized Mexicans in Oregon rose from perhaps 25,000 in 1990 to 175,000 in 2005. About 11,000 Mexicans live in the 70,000 resident county, and Latinos are half of the K-12 students in several local cities.

The California-based Farmworker Institute for Education and Leadership Development (FIELD) surveyed 200 Oregon farm workers and 23 employers in Fall 2005 to learn of training needs. FIELD found that workers need to learn more about pruning wine grapes and recording data in nurseries, and will develop training materials.

According to FIELD, 8,000 workers were employed in Oregon's $1 billion nursery and greenhouse in 2004, three-fourths of them male. Entry-level wages were $7.25 to $8 an hour, and two-thirds reporting they were employed year-round. About three-fourths of workers said they wanted to learn English, and 95 percent of employers said lack of English was a key barrier to upward mobility for their workers.

Bear Creek Orchards, which grows pears for the mail-order firm Harry and David, reportedly agreed with workers in 1994 to share productivity gains and cost savings, with wages rising 40 percent and days lost to injuries and illnesses down sharply.

Mitch Lies, "Keeping skilled work force critical in ag," Capital Press, May 26, 2006. Peter Nicholas and Nancy Vogel, "U.S., Mexico Need to Cooperate on Migration, Fox Says," Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2006. Ginger Thompson, "Some in Mexico See Border Wall as Opportunity," New York Times, May 25, 2006. "Fox tours Washington's farm country," AP, May 25, 2006. Thelma Guerrero, "Study takes a snapshot of ag workers," Statesman Journal, May 19, 2006. Tomas Alex Tizon, "Mr. Fox, Cough Up $300,000," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2006.