They are your people – you take care of them.

Mexico's new secretary of health visited San Francisco on Monday to learn about the health needs of the millions of Mexican immigrants living in California and to further collaborate with state officials to meet those needs.

"We can build a new model for attention to the health needs of Mexican workers here," said Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, appointed by Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderon.

The former hospital chief and medical school director from the state of Guanajuato said he plans to meet every six months with U.S. health officials and Mexican immigrant communities to create a basic health care plan to cover Mexicans in the United States and eventually extend to them a system of universal health care that is being developed by the Calderon administration.

Cordova, who came here from a meeting on border issues in Tijuana, spoke with reporters at the Mexican consulate and then met with Bay Area groups that provide health care to Mexican immigrants. He planned to end his one-day trip to the Bay Area, his first official visit to this country, by hosting a dinner at Tommy Toy's restaurant with officials of the University of California, the governor's office, and the state and federal health departments.

Now if you would only be as proactive about stopping them from crossing the border illegally as you are about trying to get them medical care in this countryÂ…

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