Plan for troops at border may not satisfy GOP

WASHINGTON — President Bush is sending as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to stiffen enforcement at the Mexican border, a dramatic get-tough bid he hopes will salvage an immigration overhaul by winning over his party's most conservative members.

"We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that," Bush said in a prime-time address Monday, outlining a plan to send the part-time troops while training 6,000 new Border Patrol agents.

Bush mixed that show of muscle with an outstretched hand, throwing his weight behind a plan to give illegal workers already here a shot at citizenship — something many conservatives consider little more than a get-out-of-jail-free type of "amnesty."

Bush rejected that term Monday night, calling on critics to recognize that it's unrealistic to expect some 12 million illegal immigrants in the country simply to be rounded up and shipped home.

"There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation," Bush said.

But in the immigration debate, middle ground has been in short supply, with massive pro-immigration let-us-stay rallies on one side and sharp go-home rhetoric on the other.

And as of Monday night, there were signs that some Republicans weren't moved by Bush's boots-on-the-ground plan, saying they need to see proof of tougher border security before even considering other steps to legalize immigration, even if that takes years.

"I have real concerns about moving forward with a guest-worker program ... until we have adequately addressed our serious border-security problems," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Bush hoped to use the weight of a national address to push lawmakers together as the Senate resumed immigration debate — and in the hopes of scoring a badly needed legislative victory to reverse sagging approval ratings.

But the two houses are far apart, and even Republicans aren't listening to a weakened Bush quite as intently these days, as they face their own elections this fall.

House Republicans are pushing an enforcement-only bill, and the Senate is working on a compromise bill that contains most of what Bush wants to see.

Under Bush's National Guard plan, troops would be pulled out of states all over the country to be dispatched to the border for two to three weeks at a time as part of their normal once-a-year requirement for service.

But that would mean a massive rotation through the course of the year, with as many as 156,000 individual soldiers pulling border duty in the first year, the White House said.

That's roughly one out of every three members of the National Guard. In the second year, 3,000 troops would go, then zero as the new Border Patrol agents took up posts.

The National Guard troops wouldn't be involved in chasing down, apprehending or detaining illegal border-crossers — merely doing logistical, surveillance, construction or other duties to help free up regular Border Patrol officers.

Pentagon officials don't want to use the guard in a direct law-enforcement role, since catching immigrants is not a task soldiers routinely train for.

The idea is to provide stopgap forces while training 6,000 new Border Patrol agents — a number that would bring the overall force to 18,000, twice the number as when Bush took office.

Already Democrats and some Republicans are raising alarms about leaning on the National Guard when the force is stretched thin by deployments to Iraq.

And officials in border states are worried that armed soldiers will exacerbate tensions and step on local enforcement efforts.

"I don't want to see soldiers on the border," said Jerry Agan, the county judge in Presidio County, Texas. That is where Marine Corps reservists — in an incident that still casts a shadow over the region — mistakenly killed a Mexican American shepherd in 1997.

"We've been down that road before, and it did not work out," Agan said.

Those sentiments were echoed by military leaders Monday.

"Picture guys running around with M-16s. If I was a citizen in that part of the country, I am not sure I would want that in my backyard," said one Army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss policy.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be in line to receive some troops, also raised concern that troops might be needed for natural disasters and other duties.

Democrats pounced on the plan as a quick-fix way of calling in the National Guard to rescue Bush from his serious political problems.

"Militarizing our borders is a desperate response by the president to his and Republican Congress' policy failures," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

Bush also endorsed a so-called "guest worker" program that would allow new workers to come here legally and temporarily before returning home.

But the most controversial component of his proposal is to create a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants here now, who would work their way toward citizenship by paying back taxes and a fine, learning English and then getting in line for legal status.

Bush insists those many steps mean are hardly an "automatic path to citizenship." Opponents say they are being rewarded for past illegal behavior by being allowed to stay.

The White House and a bipartisan alliance of senators insist that requiring illegal workers to pay fines, undergo criminal-background checks and learn English before they can seek citizenship is not amnesty.

"Some in this country argue that the solution is to deport every illegal immigrant — and that any proposal short of this amounts to amnesty," Bush said. "I disagree."

Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.