WILKES-BARRE — Less than four minutes after former Mexican President Vicente Fox took the stage at F.M. Kirby Center Monday night, he called Mexican immigrants working in the United States his “heroes,” and applauded their work.

It set the tone for his speech, which he has followed in TV interviews and book tours the last three weeks he has spent in the United States. Although Fox touched on several topics, including the Iraq War, during the 38-minute speech he focused on immigration policy and reviving Latin American countries’ economies with open trade and normalization of a workforce.

“They came here with their pockets empty and their heads full of dreams, looking for their American dreams,” Fox said of immigrants to the United States.

Fox spoke as part of Wilkes University’s fourth annual Outstanding Leaders Forum. In what amounted to a lecture on the virtues of open-market capitalism in a changing global economy, Fox’s speech relied heavily on the same points made in his recently published book, “Revolution of Hope,” even using similar anecdotes. He called for shared agreements between countries in the Americas, creating an open work force.

His comments drew applause from the crowd three times, twice about immigration reform and once when he called for a U.S. withdraw from Iraq, equating it to a parent that has to let a child grow up.

Fox referenced New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman, calling “the world flat” and saying that NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) worked well for the U.S., Canada and Mexico to create jobs, even if American manufacturing jobs were exported. He told the audience that open borders would create economic prosperity for the U.S., an “aging nation” that will need workers.

He called for Congress to handle immigration reform, because without reform it left “open spaces” that would be filled by people preying on hate. He didn’t mention Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta or that city’s illegal immigration act directly during the speech or his 20-minute news conference before the event, but he discussed “local communities” forced to handle the immigration issue.

“It’s a federal issue and should be addressed by Congress,” he said. “When you do not act and you do not meet problems, you leave empty spaces.”

Fox called for current immigrants in the United States with jobs to be allowed to stay as long as they worked and told audience members that immigrants are “hard working” and “not terrorists.”

“I am not for illegality, but these people came here because someone offered them a job,” Fox said. “They love this nation, they contribute to the betterment of this nation.”

Ten minutes into his speech Fox referenced plans in the U.S. to build a wall along the Mexican-American border. He would use the term “wall” at least 20 times during his speech and called such actions deplorable.

“I cannot understand why a wall is being built,” Fox said. “What is the fear in this nation? Who is this nation trying to isolate from? Why the inconsistency? When President Reagan comes in Berlin and shouts ‘Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall ...’ The threat to this nation is not immigrants. The threat to this nation is isolation. Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges. Bridges of understanding. Bridges of trade. Bridges of love.”

cjones@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2110