President Bush returns to the U.S.-Mexico border today to kick off a three-state blitz aimed at cajoling the House into accepting a Senate proposal to grant legal status to illegal immigrants.
Bush will visit a law enforcement training center in Artesia, N.M., and a Border Patrol station in Laredo, Texas, today before traveling to Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday to discuss the importance of assimilating immigrants.
The White House acknowledged that it will be a challenge to convince conservative Republicans in the House to accept the Senate’s guest-worker proposal, which would grant legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants.
“It’s going to be a considerable amount of work, yes,” said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. “But I guarantee you that the president is actively involved.”
On Monday, the first 50 of 6,000 National Guard troops arrived along the border to help overworked Border Patrol agents. Bush deployed the troops in part to demonstrate to conservatives that he is serious about border security.
He is expected to emphasize this bolstering of security in his speeches today and Wednesday because it is one of several points in the immigration debate on which all sides agree.
“Everybody agrees on the importance of border security,” Snow said. “There is widespread agreement that … you cannot move out all 11 million aliens.”
