WASHINGTON – President Bush will push next week for a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and plans to tighten security on the borders, possibly with a wider deployment of the National Guard, White House officials said Friday.
The officials said Bush will use a prime-time television address Monday to outline his plans and then visit the U.S.-Mexican border on Thursday to highlight the problem of illegal immigration.
Officials say he is considering substantially increasing the presence of National Guard troops, some of whom are already deployed under state of emergency declarations in New Mexico and Arizona. Administration officials are exploring ways to allow governors to deploy troops across state lines to help seal the borders.
The militarization of border security would be a dramatic – and controversial – gesture in the ongoing political war over illegal immigration. The military has long maintained a small presence under the auspices of drug interdiction, but conservatives in Congress have been pushing for a far more visible and substantial effort.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said he was concerned that the administration has not consulted directly with him and other governors of border states. “While the immediate deployment of troops may create a short-term fix, it creates further problems and concerns regarding our National Guard troops who may be called upon to respond to other emergencies and natural disasters,” he said.
The Monday night speech, Bush’s first prime-time television address since December, will come the same day the Senate takes up the immigration issue again, more than a month after a bipartisan compromise measure collapsed amid partisan acrimony. This time, Senate leaders from both parties are confident a bill will emerge before Memorial Day, and they are preparing for difficult negotiations with the House.
Rallies that have brought millions of illegal immigrants and their supporters to the streets of Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago have convinced politicians they must act, Republicans and Democrats say.
Republicans say Bush must create the momentum for negotiations by forcefully making the case that it is unrealistic to think 12 million illegal immigrants can be deported, and to make serious commitments to seal the borders. Americans still remember the 1986 immigration law, when they were promised an amnesty for illegal immigrants would be coupled with border security and a crackdown on businesses that employ illegal immigrants, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said. They got the amnesty, but the flow of illegal immigrants went on unabated.
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