Is President Finally Taking a Stand on Border Issue?

Bush Vows to 'Enforce Our Border'
In Texas, President Promotes Plan to Curb Illegal Immigration

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; Page A04

DENVER, Nov. 29 -- President Bush on Tuesday wrapped up a two-day visit to the Southwest to promote his policy for stemming the tide of illegal immigration, vowing that his administration will "enforce our border."

Bush started his day in El Paso, where his motorcade drove along a dusty road just inside the border with Mexico. Afterward, Bush repeated his observation that it will take a multi-pronged plan to get a handle on illegal immigration.

"We've got a comprehensive strategy that says we're going to enforce this border," Bush said. "We're going to prevent people from coming here in the first place. . . . And then I told you we've got to have better interior enforcement, plus a rational worker plan that is not amnesty."

The visit to the border highlighted the second day of Bush's effort to win support for his plan to step up border security and immigration enforcement while instituting a guest-worker program that would grant foreign workers temporary legal status to take jobs that go unfilled by Americans. On Monday, he gave a speech in Tucson urging lawmakers to support his plan for revising the nation's immigration laws.

Officials including Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) joined Bush in his tour.

El Paso, like most areas along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, has experienced an increase in the number of illegal immigrants in recent years despite intensified enforcement efforts that include high-tech sensors, more Border Patrol agents and cameras aimed at catching illegal entrants.

Government agents have captured 4.5 million people trying to cross the southern border since 2001. Nonetheless, the number of illegal immigrants in the country has more than doubled to an estimated 11 million over the past nine years, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

I hope that Bush is finally taking this seriously. I'll reserve judgment, but so far the President has shown little inclination to retake control of our border. I blame the President for this problem because he has been trying to work both sides of the street, pandering to the companies which use undocumented workers in direct violation of the law and to those in the Hispanic community who favor illegal immigration, and those of us in his base who find this wholesale invasion reprehensible. I hope he has finally developed a backbone on this issue, but I will wait for more proof before I relax.

Full Story: Controlling our Borders

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