President Bush will offer to toughen his stance on border security tonight if House Republicans soften their stance on immigrants who already have entered the U.S. illegally.
In a prime-time address to the nation, Bush is expected to call for greater use of National Guard troops to help seal the porous U.S.-Mexico border.
“A number of folks have suggested greater use of the National Guard ? it?s one of the things he will consider,” National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told CBS on Sunday.
Hadley emphasized that the troops, a small number of whom are already involved in border security, would be used in “support functions” and only temporarily.
“This is not about militarizing the border,” he said.
“Safeguarding the border is for the Border Patrol, and they have a huge task. And one of the issues is, do they need help on an interim basis?”
Bush is hoping such a gesture on border security will convince House Republicans to drop their opposition to a guest-worker program that would grant legal status to millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. The Senate has already passed a measure to that effect.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he supports the greater use of National Guard troops.
“The only thing that we can do to secure our borders right now is to give our states help, and that is best done through the National Guard,” he told CNN. “Each state has to identify what law enforcement they can put on the front line, what the resources are, and, at that point in time, determine how much of the National Guard will be necessary.”
But Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said deployment of the National Guard “takes us away from trying to resolve this on a bigger, longer-term, more permanent basis.”
He suggested strengthening border security through other means.
“There are vast new resources that we are talking about in border patrol ? control, money, equipment,” he told ABC. “That?s the way to fix it, not further stretching the National Guard.”
