Got a question for Fox? Don't ask

No questions. No questions. No questions. No questions. No questions. No questions. That's the official policy for Mexican President Vicente Fox's 24-hour visit to Utah that begins today.

According to the latest version of the Mexican leader's schedule, released Monday by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office, Fox won't be saying anything here beyond his scripted speeches to various groups, including the Utah Legislature.

The schedule spells out that there are to be "no questions" at each of the six events Fox will attend and includes a note stating that a previously announced news conference "has been canceled due to scheduling changes."

With immigration increasingly a volatile topic, Fox appears to be playing it safe in Utah by avoiding any opportunity to make a misstatement. He even went so far as to cancel meetings with newspaper editorial boards.

And it's not just Utah. The Mexican leader apparently won't be talking much to the media during his other stops on this visit to the United States. He's scheduled to be in both Seattle and Sacramento before returning to Mexico.

Why? "President Fox is not giving any exclusives (to anyone) in Utah, Seattle or California due to the heated ... debate over immigration," one of the organizers of the visit, Joe Reyna, said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.

The visit comes a week after President Bush called for using the National Guard along the southern U.S. border, along with renewing his call for comprehensive reform.

The Senate could vote this week on sweeping immigration reform that would put millions of undocumented immigrants on a pathway to citizenship. Any reform would have to be hashed out with the House's measure to crack down on illegal immigration.

Salt Lake Mexican Consul Salvador Jimenez said the news conference's cancelation was simply a "natural adjustment" in scheduling. "He has to leave earlier to the state of Washington," Jimenez said. "He doesn't have time" for the news conference.

The consul has coordinated five other presidential visits in other areas he's served, saying it's common for the schedule to change. "Last-minute adjustments need to be made, and this was one of them," Jimenez said.

"Typical Mexicans," Armando Solorzano said laughing. A native of Mexico and professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah, he believed the lack of media access to Fox may have had more to do with message control than scheduling.

"You never know," he said. "But Mexico is very concerned about it's image."

There's illegal immigration in the United States, and Mexico is also dealing with sensitive situations with Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador, Solorzano said.