President George Bush, in a nationally-televised speech on Monday, is expected to propose tougher immigration-enforcement measures along the United States-Mexico border, including the use of additional troops, US media reported on Friday.
The New York Times and other media reported that the president is likely to discuss the deployment of national-guard troops — a move governors in US border states have advocated for some time.
The reports came on the same day that US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld held talks in Washington with his Mexican counterpart General Clemente Ricardo Vega on border issues.
”We have many important things to coordinate with Mexico, for example the border, the war against narcotics trafficking, joint training,” said Pentagon spokesperson Jeff Gordon.
On Monday Bush is expected to propose measures for tougher border enforcement as part of his comprehensive immigration-reform plan, which until now had focused almost entirely on putting in place a guest-worker programme that could legalise the status of the roughly 11,5-million illegal immigrants in the US.
White House spokesperson Tony Snow said on Friday that the president would offer revisions to his past immigration proposals, but declined, other than in the most general terms, to say what Bush would say in the speech.
”The president will be laying out his comprehensive proposal for immigration reform,” said Snow, the president’s new chief spokesperson.
His remarks Monday will come on the same day the Senate is expected to renew its debate on immigration reform and legalising the status of illegal immigrants, which has been stalled for more than a month.
”The president at this point is more focused on trying to tackle such issues as immigration,” said Snow, who said Bush’s decision to make a speech on the issue was influenced at least in part by the legislative schedule.
”The Senate has agreed to take this up,” Snow said. ”This is crunch time on the issue.”
Bush has called for the creation of a temporary guest-worker programme for illegal immigrants, but popular sentiment is in favour of strengthening border patrols to stem the inflow, some polls have shown. — AFP
