Mexican President Felipe Calderón mingles with residents of Nogales, Sonora, during a brief visit. He vowed to create jobs that will keep Mexicans home.

GREG BRYAN / arizona daily star

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NOGALES, Sonora — Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Wednesday made a brief visit to this border city, where he praised his country's expatriates for keeping strong ties to Mexico.

Speaking at a checkpoint a few miles south of the border, Calderón said he would work during his six-year term to keep Mexicans at home through job creation.

Well-paid jobs are the only long-term solution to the mass migration of Mexicans to the United States, the president noted, speaking of those he said leave home and family behind, sometimes forever, to struggle for a better life on the other side of the 2,000-mile border.

"I know their history of work, courage and sacrifice," Calderón said. "I know of the problems and challenges they face outside of their country, but I also know know of their feats and their desire to get ahead."

The president said he would work to ensure fair treatment of Mexican migrants on both sides of the border. He lauded the Paisano Program, which aims to expedite the process of travel documentation for tens of thousands of Mexicans living in the United States — legally and illegally — who return home each year to spend the holidays with families and friends. The program also combines state and federal resources to eradicate the potential extortion of Mexican travelers by government employees, a source of complaints for years.

Calderón said his government also is working with financial institutions to reduce transaction fees for migrant workers who send money home regularly, as well as to secure housing loans for families of absent Mexicans.

On the U.S. side, the president said he would boost funding for the 48 Mexican consulates that offer various services to expatriates.

Calderón, who has been quoted in the Mexican press as saying he has relatives living illegally in the United States, emphasized that migrating is not a crime, but rather, a natural phenomenon that must be addressed by both Mexico and its neighbor to the north.

This generation has an ethical and political responsibility to create the right conditions that will allow people to stay in their communities, he said, adding that foreign investment also is key to keeping Mexicans at home.

Aida Larios who voted for Calderón in July's election, said she expects the president to bring progress. A longtime supporter of Calderón's National Action Party, Larios said she is confident the country's economy will improve under his leadership.

After listening to his remarks at Kilometer 21, about 13 miles south of the international line, Larios said she liked his plans to reduce migration and attract investment from outside the country, .

The Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders in Tucson, was in Nogales Wednesday. He said he thinks Calderón will be a strong advocate for human rights on both sides of the border.

Martin Salazar Salas, 34, arrived at the checkpoint a few minutes after Calderón's departure. He was on his way back to his native state of Jalisco after working illegally for nearly two years as a restaurant cook in Phoenix.

Salazar Salas said he would give Calderón five or six months to make good on his promise to boost employment. "If I don't have a job by then, I'm going back to Phoenix," he said. "I have a wife and five children to support."

His cousin, Raúl Salazar Salas, 33, said he's ready to stay put in his Jalisco hometown of Villa Hidalgo after spending 20 months away from his wife and two children. He bused tables at a Phoenix restaurant, without legal documents, and earned enough money to bring back a 1993 white Ford truck crammed with toys and household items for his family.

The younger man said he hopes to land steady work at home because he doesn't want to repeat the illegal journey north that left a bad taste in his mouth last year. He slipped across the border into the Altar Valley with 32 people, he said. His group walked for four days in the desert before being separated. He knows he and 13 others made it to Phoenix, he said, but not before running out of food and water. The group also was assaulted at gunpoint, he said.

"It was a bad experience," he recalled. "I'm ready to stay home with my family, to do whatever work I can find."

A short walk from the border, Orlando Gonzalez, 29, sat against a wall with several others whose attempt to sneak into Arizona failed. The U.S. Border Patrol deported him and his companions on Tuesday, he said, after two nights in the cold desert. The men were headed to Phoenix, said Gonzalez, adding that he had previously worked illegally in North Carolina. On Wednesday, he and his friends hoped to collect enough money from good Samaritans to return to the southern state of Chiapas.

News of the president's visit and his remarks about migrants failed to impress him. He has little hope of positive change in his country, even under a new president. "They promise and promise but they don't deliver," he said.

View a photo slide show of President Calderón's visit at azstarnet.com/slideshows