The United States would benefit more from a migration reform that includes the legalization of Mexican immigrants and a temporary guest-worker program than one focusing only on border security, a top Mexican official said Thursday.

Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, reiterating Mexico´s long-held position, said the government would try over the coming months to convince U.S. legislators of the importance an integral reform would have for the U.S. economy.

His statement came the same day that U.S. House Republican leaders scrambled to defend a plan to make it harder for illegal immigrants to cross the border and get jobs. On Wednesday, President Vicente Fox characterized as "shameful" and "disgraceful" the proposal to reinforce border security to stop illegal migration.

"The presence of (Mexican) migrants in the United States ... has been positive, created conditions that has allowed the nation to grow, develop, be dynamic," Derbez told a news conference.

"A proposal that only looks at security and doesn´t look at how to adequately incorporate this group that is already part of their society and economy, I would say isn´t negative for Mexico; it´s negative for the United States."

One of the proposals up for debate this week in the U.S. House of Representatives is a border and workplace security bill that would aim at cutting off the flow of illegal entrants before promoting the temporary guest-worker program that U.S. President George W. Bush has backed.

The bill would increase penalties for migrant traffickers and lead to the construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Since he took office in December 2000, President Vicente Fox has promoted a wide-reaching migration reform bill that would lead to the regularization of the millions of Mexican migrants already in the United States and allow for the legal and orderly flow of additional migrants who want to participate in the work force. Officials estimate that approximately 400,000 Mexicans migrate to the U.S. each year.