They're the same topics Mexican President Vicente Fox and Utah governors have been talking about for at least three years.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. says the two leaders are likely to talk about those issues once again during Fox's stop in Utah today and Wednesday.

"I don't know what is likely to come up," Huntsman said late last week. "But I'm going to report to him that I have done as I told him I would do, to bring the Western governors together around a resolution that spoke in favor of comprehensive solution for immigration reform."

Former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who met with Fox in February 2003 in Mexico City, probably was the first Utah governor to meet with a Mexican president. Huntsman, who met with Fox in July 2005 in Mexico City, said he doesn't know what Fox will want to discuss, especially when it comes to specifics of immigration, on his 24-hour visit in Utah.

A five-page policy resolution by the Western Governors' Association, spearheaded by Huntsman and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, includes calls for a temporary guest worker program, a system for employers to easily verify a person's status and "federal investment in law enforcement personnel and infrastructures along the border." It opposes an amnesty for undocumented immigrants living here.

Fox's four-day visit through Utah, Washington and California comes amid immigration debates and tensions across the country and in Mexico as the U.S. Senate whittles away at various proposals.

Senators are attempting to wrap up their version of a new immigration law that meets the goals President Bush has outlined. House Republicans are resisting any measures that would give legal status to undocumented immigrants already in the country and focused their legislation on stiffening penalties for illegal immigration and tightening border security.

House Republicans oppose Bush's proposal to create a guest worker program for some 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States - about 90,000 of them in Utah.

On Monday, Bush touched on the immigration debate in a speech to the National Restaurant Association in Chicago.

Restaurant owners are "America's largest employer of immigrants," Bush told the group. "You know how important it is to have an immigration system that is safe, orderly and fair."

Bush also called on the Senate to complete its version of immigration reform so differences can be worked out with the House.

The Senate approved a proposal last week to build 370 miles of triple-layer fencing along parts of the 2,000-mile border separating the United States and Mexico.

Fox has compared such a barrier to the Berlin Wall. He reiterated his criticisms last week. Members of the Mexican Congress in approving Fox's trip urged him to use the opportunity to talk about immigration with state leaders as well as meeting with Mexicans living here.

"Building walls, constructing barriers on the border does not offer an efficient solution in a relationship of friends, neighbors and partners," Fox said in the border city of Tijuana late last week. "We will go on defending the rights of our countrymen without rest or respite. With passion we will demand the full respect of their human rights."

The status of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the United States is a major political issue in Mexico and opponents have criticized Fox for not protesting strenuously enough against U.S. efforts to build a fence at the border and to use National Guard troops to help close off illegal immigration. Fox leaves office in December due to term limits. The Mexican presidential election to chose his successor is July 2.

Still, a University of Utah professor said Fox's visit to Utah is important because he "hasn't been very successful in pushing and implementing his policy agenda." That's partly because Fox's party does not hold a majority in the Mexican Congress. Fox's top priorities have been U.S. immigration reform, reforming the tax code and privatizing the oil and electrical industries, said Claudio Holzner, a U. political science assistant professor who does research on political participation in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

"He's trying to achieve some policy success, and he's had trouble doing that with the [U.S.] federal government," Holzner said. "So he wants to meet with state leaders as a way to bypass the federal government that has been less cooperative, especially on immigration."

Holzner said he expects Fox will discuss immigration as well as finding U.S. companies to invest in and trade with Mexican companies. Mexico buys more than $120 million in Utah-made goods and services each year. Mexican nationals and immigrants own about 1,800 Utah businesses that have $227 million in annual sales.

"Any kind of contacts he can bring home would help release some of the stigma of him being an ineffective leader," Holzner said. "This would be an opportunity to score a political victory, if he can somehow show that he influenced the immigration debate in a way that benefits and protects Mexican immigrants in the United States."

jsanchez@sltrib.com

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Tribune wire services contributed to this report.