Mexican leader urges California aid on immigration

(Adds comment by Minutemen member)

By Jim Christie

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb 13 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged California lawmakers on Wednesday to help his government address the volatile issue of illegal immigration in a way that will benefit his country and the United States.

"We need to make migration legal, safe and organized," Calderon told the legislature of the most-populous U.S. state, whose large and fast-growing Mexican-American population figures prominently in debates over illegal immigration.

The question of what to do about the millions living in the United States without papers has been one of the hot-button issues in the U.S. presidential election, with Republican candidates in particular vying to demonstrate their toughness on the issue.

Calderon, who has expressed concerned about an atmosphere full of prejudice generated by anti-immigrant rhetoric, urged cooperation.

"We are at a historical turning point," said the conservative leader, on his first trip to the United States as Mexico's president. "Future generations will judge us by the decisions we make today. Did we work together to provide organized and humane migration, or did we continue to allow hundreds to die each year?

"The choice is not between migration and security or between migration and prosperity," he said. "The choice is between a future of integration and success for both, or a future of distrust and resentment between us."

Many of those who attempt to sneak into the United States die in the rugged terrain along the border each year.

Calderon disputed contentions that Mexico is turning a blind eye to internal economic problems that spur its citizens to head north. "Migration carries off the best among us: our bravest, our youngest and our strongest people," he said.

Calderon urged California lawmakers to view Mexicans as assets to the economy, recalling the state's long historic ties with his country and guest-worker programs that tapped its labor from the 1940s through the 1960s.

"This lesson from our past shows us the way to forge a better future as partners," Calderon said.

Mexico was deeply disappointed at the U.S. Congress' failure to pass President George W. Bush's comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws in June. It is also angry with the United States for building a security fence on parts of the southern border to keep illegal immigrants from Mexico out.

Republican Assembly Leader Mike Villines said California's Republican lawmakers, among the most vocal U.S. critics of illegal immigration, remain very concerned. But he said he appreciated that Calderon bluntly addressed illegal immigration in his first speech to the state Legislature.

"He came and addressed an issue pretty square-on," Villines told reporters in the Assembly's chamber.

Paul Farmer, a member of the civilian border patrol group known as the Minutemen, who have stoked the political debate over illegal immigration in recent years, criticized Calderon's visit.

"We're tired of him sending his welfare people over here and draining our economy," Farmer said near a Sonoma County winery that Calderon visited after his speech.