Gibbons, Mexican officials confer

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Jim Gibbons said Monday he had a productive day in Mexico City, meeting with top government officials to discuss border security, enhanced tourism opportunities and a new program that might provide financial assistance to Nevada for providing medical care to Mexican nationals.

Speaking to the media by telephone conference call, Gibbons said he had a full day of meetings with Mexican ministers but was unable to meet with President Felipe Calderón due to scheduling conflicts.

"I think we made a lot of progress," Gibbons said.

The meetings produced several potential partnerships with Mexico, including discussions about how to help bring qualified professionals to Nevada to provide assistance in the areas of health care and teaching, he said.

There was also a discussion about a potential sharing of law enforcement training and techniques between Mexican police who work in tourist areas such as Cancun and Nevada state and local police who have expertise in the large Las Vegas tourism market, Gibbons said.

One of the most intriguing possibilities for Nevada is whether the state can participate in a program run now as a pilot project in New York in which the Mexican government provides compensation to Mexican nationals, including those in the country illegally, to obtain needed medical care, he said.

Called Health Windows in English, the program is run through a Mexican consular office, and provides compensation to Mexican residents who need health care, Gibbons said. Implementing the program here could help Nevada taxpayers with the cost of providing health care to nonresidents, he said.

Asked if such a program might be viewed as supportive of illegal immigration, Gibbons said his interest is in saving state tax dollars.

Any program that would subsidize the cost of heath care treatment for nonresidents is "a win for the people of Nevada," he said.

State officials will work with Mexican authorities over the coming months to see if a program can be developed in Nevada, Gibbons said.

Gibbons and the three staff members traveling with him on the brief visit to Mexico will be in Guadalajara today to discuss ways of partnering with educators to help meet Nevada's needs in the area of health care professionals.

Brent Boynton, communications director for Gibbons, said there are no plans by the governor to call a special session of the Legislature in order to comply with a request from the Bush administration to provide Department of Motor Vehicles data to check for illegal immigrants.

Under the request, DMV information would be shared with employers to determine if their workers were non-citizens who have acquired phony licenses.

But a DMV official said Friday that state law does not allow such information sharing and the law would have to be changed to do so. Doing that would require action by the Legislature, which does not meet again until 2009.