Mexico and the United States shared responsibility for the immigration issue and both sides must work together to find a solution, a U.S. vice consul in Mexico said on Friday.

The two nations were experiencing a crisis due to the large number of illegal immigrants that had moved from Mexico to the United States, Mark Bliss said.

Bliss made the remarks at an academic seminar titled "Mexico and the United States: Presidentialism, parliamentarism: two systems, one destiny," sponsored by the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and the state electoral watchdog, the Federal Electoral Agency.

"The United States is worried about migrants because of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and it is the government's responsibility to protect its citizens," he said, adding that President George W. Bush was proposing to regularize undocumented workers and strengthen the frontier.

In mid-May, U.S. President Bush agreed to build a 600-km fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and to send 6,000 National Guard troops there in what he described a bid to fight terrorism and organized crime.

The estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States were not a national security problem, Bliss said, adding that the two nations needed to work together to solve border violence as well.

Source: Xinhua