http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/104342

Bush visit highlights GOP rifts on border
Guest-worker plan to top Monday agenda
By Mitch Tobin
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.27.2005

Hoping to straddle a fracture in the Republican Party, President Bush is due in Tucson on Monday to promote his border and immigration policies.

The 2:40 p.m. speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the president's only scheduled stop here.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are expected to appear with the president at D-M.

With the backing of businesses who need foreign employees, Bush is pushing a guest-worker program that would let undocumented workers obtain three-year work visas. Workers could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.

"Our Border Patrol and immigration agents are doing a fine job, but we still have a problem," Bush said in his Oct. 22 radio address.

"If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis."

The proposal has alienated many conservative Republicans who feel it gives amnesty to people who have entered the country illegally.
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Competing guest-worker proposals have been introduced in Congress, which is expected to take up the contentious issue early next year:

â—? Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., support legislation that would allow illegal border crossers to work in the United States for up to six years.

â—? Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are backing a plan that would force undocumented workers to first return to their home country to apply for a guest worker permit.

â—? Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., wants to grant legal status to undocumented workers who have paid taxes and lived in the United States for five years if they pass security checks, pay a $2,000 fine and demonstrate English proficiency.

Rank-and-file Republicans may be less divided on the immigration issue than GOP politicians in Washington, D.C.

An October poll of 807 likely Republican voters found 72 percent supported a plan with increased border security, tougher penalties on employers who hire illegal workers and a temporary worker program in which applicants could gain citizenship if they live crime-free, learn English and pay taxes. GOP pollster Ed Goeas conducted the national survey.

Bush signed a spending bill for Homeland Security last month that includes funding for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and a 10 percent increase in the holding capacity of detention facilities for border crossers.

Earlier this month, Chertoff unveiled Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative, which will add 100 deportation officers, 250 criminal investigators and 400 immigration enforcement agents to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The initiative also seeks to eliminate the department's policy of releasing border crossers with a promise to appear in court. Most of these entrants never show up for hearings under the so-called "catch and release" policy.