Yuma, Ariz. – President Bush’s motorcade barreled down a dusty road Monday between two new walls of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He climbed into the bed of a pickup to see how a portable scope tracks illegal immigrants trying to cross the border at night. He saw the “Predator,” an unmanned plane used to monitor the region.
At each stop, Bush boasted of tougher enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border as he tried to resurrect his stalled efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws over strong opposition from many of his fellow Republicans in Congress.
Frustrated by his failure to get a bill approved last year when the GOP was in charge, Bush said prospects look brighter in the Democratic Congress.
“I think the atmosphere up there is good right now,” he said.
His message – particularly to conservative critics from his own party – was that stepped-up border enforcement is working and it’s time to adopt a temporary-worker program, hold U.S. employers accountable for the workers they hire and resolve the status of the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
He saluted the opening of a new Border Patrol station in this southwest corner of Arizona and said, “This border is more secure and America is safer as a result.”
Administration officials led by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez have been meeting privately for weeks with Republican senators in search of compromise legislation. That expanded to a meeting in late March with key senators from both parties. The administration floated a proposal that would make it harder for millions of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship than under legislation passed by the Senate last year.
Bush stopped near Yuma on the way back to Washington from an Easter holiday at his Texas ranch. He climbed into the pickup at a National Guard observation post to take a look at the portable scope. He saw a rig plow holes in the ground to prepare for more fencing, steel-winged at the bottom to make it harder for illegal immigrants to tunnel beneath it.
“The number of people apprehended for illegally crossing our southern border is down by nearly 30 percent this year,” Bush said. “We’re making progress.”
