The president links what he sees as the program's benefits to a more secure border.

By Jonathan Peterson
Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — President Bush stressed his commitment Saturday to tougher efforts to prevent illegal immigration, while maintaining that a temporary worker program should be part of the nation's strategy to protect its borders.

"To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers and criminals find it easier to sneak into America."

Bush's push to create a guest worker program has met resistance from some Republicans and, as part of the administration's effort to defuse such concerns, the president emphasized the law enforcement aspects of his immigration policy.

"We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries," he said.

Under a White House plan unveiled last week, unlawful immigrants could gain temporary legal status by paying a fine and signing up for a three-year work program, with the possibility of a three-year extension.

Many employers, including large agriculture companies, hotels and restaurants, rely on foreign workers to meet their labor needs. Such guest workers would be issued identification cards. At the end of their work period, they would be expected to leave the country.

Yet that approach disturbs many of Bush's Republican supporters, who view it as an unwarranted amnesty that would attract even more unlawful immigrants to the United States.

The number of illegal immigrants is estimated at 9 million to 10 million.

"I don't think [Bush's plan] has any chance of passing this year or next — it's too controversial," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks to limit immigration. "It's obviously an amnesty."

Critics lashed out at the guest worker plan as soon as administration officials outlined it at a Senate hearing last week.

"The American people have made themselves clear: Our borders must be secured and our laws must be enforced before any guest worker plan can go into effect," Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said in a statement. "Even with the president's backing, no plan that offers amnesty to illegal aliens will pass this Congress."

Bush said Saturday that a $30.8-billion domestic security bill he signed last week included funds that would enable the Border Patrol to hire a thousand new agents, fortify fences, increase lighting, improve roads and make other enhancements in border security.

It also included money that would allow a 10% increase in the holding capacity of detention facilities. The goal "is to return every single illegal entrant, with no exceptions," Bush said. "And this bill puts us on the path to do that."

Since 2001, the United States has removed more than 4.8 million illegal immigrants, including more than 300,000 with criminal records, Bush said.

At the same time, the president said that establishing a temporary worker program is key to the White House plan.

Advocates of the guest worker approach have said that it would enable U.S. agents to focus more on dangerous immigrants and help meet a need of the national economy.

"If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis," Bush said.

He added that he would work with Congress to create a plan "that will provide for our economy's labor needs without harming American workers, and without granting amnesty, and that will relieve pressure on our borders."

Underlining concerns about porous U.S. borders, a report last week by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found that the agency usually did not make use of the tips it received on immigration violations.

The department's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year had 301,046 leads on violations, but it failed to follow up on most of them and apprehended 671 lawbreakers, the report said. The leads often contained insufficient information to pursue, the inspector general found.

The report also found that a significant share — 3.6 million — of the nation's population of unlawful immigrants entered the country with legal status but remained after their visas had expired.