Bush due to detail border proposals

When President Bush makes an overnight visit to Arizona on Monday, he is expected to talk tough about the border. Bush has been scheduled for some time to speak at a campaign fundraising dinner for Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., in the Valley.

But the White House has added an earlier stop in Tucson, where Bush will speak about his agenda for border security and immigration reform.

At his side will be two of his top advisers on those issues — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

While Bush touched on immigration during a Valley appearance in late August, he has never devoted an entire speech to the issue in more than a dozen trips to the state since he became president in 2001.

But illegal immigration has become one of the nation’s most heavily debated domestic issues in the past two years. And Arizona has been a focal point for that debate with voter passage of Proposition 200 targeting illegal immigrants and Gov. Janet Napolitano’s decision to declare a state of emergency at the border in early August.

Napolitano, a Democrat, will be at Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to greet Bush as he leaves Air Force One, and she will stay to hear his immigration speech.

"It’s encouraging any time we see the president paying attention to border issues," said Jeanine L’Ecuyer, Napolitano’s spokeswoman. "You don’t want to read too much into it. But certainly, we have seen an awful lot of things taking place since the declaration of an emergency."

Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., said he expects Bush to emphasize new efforts since midsummer to further tighten border security — with or without the president’s proposal for a temporary guestworker program. In early September, Chertoff outlined a new nationwide strateg y within a year to stop "catch and release" of non-Mexican immigrants until a court hearing, and to regain control of the entire border by 2010.

On Monday, Shadegg said he believes Bush will call for increased criminal penalties and other efforts to stop for human smugglers who frequently kidnap and blackmail border crossers, or abandon them in the desert to die.

"In previous years, the president seemed to talk almost entirely about his ideas for a temporary worker program," said Shadegg, a top negotiator for House Republicans on immigration reform. "Now, he is ready to signal his support for enhanced border security."

Several Republican members of Arizona’s congressional delegation urged Bush to visit the border during this trip to see the problems firsthand. While the president won’t travel south of Tucson to the border, about 90 miles away, he will receive a private briefing from key border enforcement agents.

"In meeting with the Border Patrol he will have the opportunity to hear from people on the ground what’s necessary to gain control over the border," Kyl said in a statement Saturday. "There’s no substitute for talking directly to the agents who work every day on the front lines."

Key Republican allies also want the president to reach out to some party leaders who have accused Washington officials of being more interested in helping businesses dependent on foreign labor than protecting the country.

"I hope it means he recognizes this is a public crisis, that we have an immigration crisis in this country and we are going to address it," said state Rep. Russell Pearce, RMesa. "I hope he’s not going to go down there and pander to the cheap labor crowd and the far-left who are ignoring the invasion of our country."

But strict immigration control advocates such as Pearce are likely to be partly disappointed with Bush’s remarks. Shadegg and White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Bush remains committed to a guest-worker program to accommodate an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

"He continues to work with members of Congress in both houses and in both parties to develop meaningful immigration reforms as well as border security measures," Lisaius said.