Monday, May 15, 2006; Posted: 4:47 PM(CDT)
KSBI-TV will air President Bush's speech LIVE Monday night beginning at 7:00.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush will announce plans to deploy "up to 6,000" National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to support border patrol officers when he addresses the nation Monday night, an administration official said.
Earlier, a senior administration official said the president would announce the deployment of several thousand troops to provide surveillance and security for U.S. border patrol agents as part of his push for a broader overhaul of immigration laws.
Bush will outline his plan in a televised Oval Office speech to the nation that will be carried live at 8 p.m. ET Monday on CNN and Pipeline.
The troops would remain under the control of the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, although the federal government is expected to foot the bill for their deployment.
National Guard planners are talking to the governors from each of the four states to reach separate agreements, according to National Guard sources.
The troops will not be involved in apprehending or holding illegal immigrants and would remain largely out of sight, National Guard sources told CNN. About 350 Guard troops currently are assigned to the border.
Active-duty U.S. troops are barred from domestic law enforcement by a Reconstruction-era law known as Posse Comitatus, but National Guard troops under state control can perform some law enforcement functions.
The proposal drew cautious support from Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who said Bush had been "nowhere to be found" during earlier debates on immigration.
With the Senate taking up competing immigration bills, some Republicans remained opposed to Bush's call for guest-worker program and a program to normalize the status of more than 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally.
Previous Senate efforts stalled in April amid disputes between the chamber's GOP leadership and its Democratic minority over procedural issues, but Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, has pledged to pass a bill before Memorial Day, May 29.
Reid said said senators believe border security "is the No. 1 issue facing this country."
The Senate minority leader said Bush's plan to put National Guard troops on the border is "a good idea," but he cautioned that the Guard is being stretched thin by deployments in Iraq.
"The troops really are beleaguered. They're overworked. And we have to make sure that they have the ability to do this," Reid said.
He said Bush has a "credibility gap" on immigration, accusing the administration of refusing to fund 500 of the 2,000 additional Border Patrol officers authorized by Congress last year.
Reid also challenged the president to detail his position on some of the more controversial provisions in a House bill passed in November, and asked if Bush will "finally get tough on employer sanctions."
GOP concern
Two prominent Republicans -- Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- have questioned the wisdom of sending Guard units to the border.
But White House Communications Director Nicolle Wallace said Monday the deployment would be a temporary move that won't hurt the units' capabilities.
"The National Guard will not be tapped in any way whatsoever that will detract from their mission in the war on terror or their ability to respond to natural disasters, hurricanes or flooding," Wallace said.
The number of troops to be deployed represents about 3 percent of the troops in National Guard units, a Guard official told CNN.
The number of Guard troops deployed to Iraq has been cut by more than half, from about 50,000 a year ago to 23,000.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, a former Border Patrol officer, warned the White House that Bush's proposal to put National Guard troops on the border would aggravate "a contentious political issue" in Mexico and other Latin American countries and could result Mexican voters electing an anti-American president.
"If that happens, illegal immigration will be the least of our problems," wrote Reyes, a Democrat. "Mexico is not our enemy, and there is much at stake for both our countries with respect to security, commerce, and culture."
Mexican President Vicente Fox telephoned Bush on Sunday to tell him he is worried about any U.S. move to "militarize" the roughly 2,000-mile border, one of the longest unfortified frontiers in the world, spokespersons for both leaders said.
Divisions in Congress
The Senate is considering two proposals. One would allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal status, and eventually citizenship, by working for six years, paying a fine, undergoing a background check and learning English.
Supporters of the idea call it "earned citizenship," but opponents -- including many conservatives in the GOP base -- denounce it as "amnesty."
Another bill would limit the normalization process to illegal immigrants who have been in the country longer than five years.
Both bills include Bush's proposal for a temporary guest-worker program that would match immigrants with jobs in the United States.
Any measure the Senate passes would have to be reconciled with the enforcement-focused House bill that would make it a felony to enter the country illegally and would wall off about 700 miles of the border.
The House bill sparked a wave of protests by immigration supporters, particularly because of the provision making illegal immigration a felony.
GOP leaders have indicated they are likely to drop that provision when negotiators hash out details of a final bill.
Republicans have been divided over what to do about the millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said his colleagues were "blissfully ignorant" of the full impact of the bills.
"I would suggest and say with confidence that this Senate is not ready to pass legislation that so significantly changes our future immigration policy," said Sessions, a Republican.
"The impact this bill will have over the next 20 years is monumental and has not been thought through."
Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser and White House deputy chief of staff, told a Washington think-tank audience the temporary worker program Bush supports is necessary to secure the border.
"We want to have people patiently waiting in line with the prospect of being able to eventually go north and get a job rather than throwing themselves across the border time and time again," Rove said Monday in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
KSBI-TV will carry the President's speech LIVE.
