United States President George Bush, scrambling to hold on to an increasingly disaffected conservative Republican base, said on Monday night that he was deploying thousands of troops on the US border with Mexico to crack down on illegal immigration.
With opinion polls charting a steep decline in support from the conservatives who have been the president’s bedrock, Bush promised to deploy as many as 6 000 national guard troops along the 3 2,000km frontier as part of a $1,9-billion programme to seal off the border. He also plans to increase the border patrol force.
”We do not yet have full control of the border and I am determined to change that,” Bush said in prepared remarks. ”I am calling on Congress to provide funding for dramatic improvements in manpower and technology on the border.”
Monday night’s address was intended to disarm conservative opposition to legislation coming before the Senate this week for a guest worker programme that would allow many of the 11-million illegal immigrants already in the US a chance at becoming citizens.
Bush plans to follow up his address with a visit on Thursday to the border in Arizona to further press his case. He is also expected to call on immigrants to learn English if they want to gain US passports.
In addition to the national guard, which will play a supporting role to the border patrol forces, the plan unveiled by Bush calls for an increase in detention centres for illegal immigrants.
The tough talk on border security was intended to reassure conservatives who have agitated for harsher treatment of illegal immigrants. But Bush faced a delicate balancing act, reeling in his conservative base while not alienating the increasingly important Hispanic voting bloc. ”We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly and fair,” Bush said.
Earlier on Monday Karl Rove, the White House adviser, reached out to both constituencies. In a speech to a conservative thinktank, he said: ”We have got a border that is so porous, who knows whether that is simply an illegal immigrant looking to get a job in a landscaping company, or somebody who wants to do something worse?” But he went on to say a guest worker programme was a necessity.
The speech marked the first phase of a concerted effort by the White House to shore up a conservative base whose support for Bush has declined from 80% to 50%. But Democratic as well as Republican leaders lined up to express their doubts. ”The national guard already is stretched to the limit by repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as from providing disaster assistance in their own states,” said Edward Kennedy, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts.
Although Rove was upbeat on Monday about the Republicans’ prospects in next November’s elections, he admitted that Bush’s popularity had declined.
Asked about the Republican party’s prospects in the midterm elections, Rove said: ”Look, we’re in a sour time. Being in the middle of a war where people turn on their TV sets and see brave men and women dying is not something that makes people happy and optimistic and upbeat.”
In an attempt to turn things around, Bush will hold a signing ceremony at the White House for an extension of his tax cuts later this week. Next month Congress is expected to return to the controversial issue of gay rights, with a vote on a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages. – Guardian Unlimited Â