CORDOBA, Mexico — On the floor of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, an exhausted Central American man with a farmer’s tan sleeps deeply on the cement floor. He’s endured days in the blazing tropical sun atop a cargo train, and at the parish he can rest for three days, shower, get a free change of clothes and depart well fed. Nearly 1,000 weary Central American immigrants like the sleeping man will seek shelter here during the year, according to the parish priest, Father Margarito Flores Munoz. Most are on their way to the United States. And so Our Lady of Guadalupe and Father Flores have become another point of contention in the long and acrimonious search for a solution to illegal immigration to the United States. The Bush administration wants Mexico to crack down on transiting Central Americans before it supports legislation in Congress that would make it easier for Mexican migrants to work legally in the United States. The issue is expected to be among those discussed when President Bush meets with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, in Cancun next week. U.S. officials note that U.S. immigration officers now apprehend more Central Americans than Mexicans. […]

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