Carlos Slim: US-Mexico immigrant fence 'absurd'

Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, the world's third-richest man, has called on Bush for more regional investments and criticised the building of a US-Mexican border fence.

Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire, said the fence being built to try to stop immigrants from entering the US illegally was "absurd".

US immigration policies are unpopular across much of Latin America, helping left-wing leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, to gain support.

'Coyotes'

Illegal immigration from Mexico into the US is the thorniest problem between the two neighbours, with drug trafficking a not-so-distant second.

These issues stand to dominate the agenda when Bush meets Calderon, a fellow conservative elected last year, bucking a trend towards the left in Latin America.

"The system needs to be fixed," Bush said.

"We don't want people to feel like they have to get stuffed into the back of a truck and pay exorbitant fees to 'coyotes' to come and try to realise dreams," Bush said, referring to traffickers who transport undocumented workers across the US-Mexican border.

Mexicans account for more than half of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.

Healthy immigration

Slim, whose wealth from his telecommunications, retail and industrial firms is estimated at $49bn by Forbes magazine, said US companies should build large, high-quality hospitals on the Mexican end of the 3,200km border.

"This would reduce health costs in the United States," Slim said.

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