One of the most significant and controversial changes promoted by Vicente Fox's government (2000–2006) was the reinterpretation of Mexico's foreign policy. At the beginning of 2001, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Jorge G. Castañeda, described the new “axes” on which Mexican foreign policy would be based in order to adapt to the most recent national and international transformations, including the democratization process in Mexico, economic integration with the United States, and the pressures of globalization. This new approach would entail a more active presence in multilateral forums, a consistent defense of human rights at the national and international levels, and deeper integration with the United States, including a more comprehensive bilateral agenda (Castañeda, 2001). In this context, one of the main issues that was actively and explicitly incorporated into the United States–Mexico agenda for the first time was the need to establish broader cooperation mechanisms, including a migration agreement, to face the challenges of a migratory flow of between 400,000 and 500,000 people a year, and the presence of nearly 10 million Mexican migrants in the United States in 2000 (of whom close to 5 million were undocumented migrants at the time; Grieco, 2003).