Bush guest-worker plan lacks support

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One hundred days into his all-out push to win an immigration bill President Bush has convinced House Republicans he is serious about enforcing the border, but he has failed to win their support for his plan to create a guest-worker program or a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

"I've had a lot of conversations with the president and I just try to make him understand that comprehensive is fine, but the first thing we have to do is protect the borders," House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, told The Washington Times during a campaign stop for a fellow Republican in Arizona last week. "Until you protect the borders, any reform without protecting the borders is premature."

He said that during a recent outing in his district, when he invited constituents to come see him in a park in the town of Geneseo, 150 people showed up and that with the exception of one woman, "every one of those people said secure the border first. It was amazing."

In fact, House Republicans are "stauncher than ever" that a border security bill must come first, said Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, in a telephone interview.

"I think he's convinced us he's serious [about enforcement], but to me these are only first steps. Before we even consider any type of quote-unquote comprehensive legislation, we have to show we can control the border -- not that we want to, but that we can," Mr. King said. "Speaking for myself and, I believe, a great majority of House Republicans, we have to see results before we consider going any further. And I can't see that happening in less than a year or 18 months."

Mr. Bush began his major push May 15 with a prime-time address in which he called for National Guard troops to assist on the border, promised to get tough on businesses that hire illegal aliens, and demanded that Congress pass a bill that includes a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for most illegal aliens.

But House Republicans say allowing illegal aliens to stay amounts to amnesty.

Polls show varying support for a guest-worker program and for legalizing illegal aliens, but the one area almost all voters agree on in polls is the need to do more to secure the borders.

The House last year passed an enforcement bill that calls for 700 miles of new border fence, cracks down on employers who hire illegal aliens and makes illegal presence a felony. The Senate this year passed a bill that includes half that amount of fencing, includes new requirements for employers and creates both a new foreign-worker program and a path to citizenship for nearly 10 million illegal aliens.

Mr. Bush has generally backed the Senate approach, which he called "a good immigration bill," and the White House yesterday said Mr. Bush is making progress this summer toward winning a comprehensive bill.