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Tucson Citizen

President Bush has started to put flesh on the bones of his immigration reform promises, and the initial outlook is not encouraging.
Bush has long said comprehensive immigration reform would be a mainstay of his second-term agenda. But until this week, he has backed up that pledge with only vague generalities.

This week, some details emerged. It is clear that Bush hopes to use the immigration issue as a way to solidify his shaky conservative base.

Conservatives in Congress have told Bush they will not discuss a guest worker program or any aspect of immigration reform until the border is sealed. That sounds appealing but is wildly impractical.

The facts are these: In big cities and in some small towns, the United States has built steel and concrete walls along the border. The number of Border Patrol agents has been tripled in the past couple of years. Still, agents made 1.17 million arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

Moves to seal the border have failed

Efforts to seal the border have failed. An estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are in this country, playing a vital role in our national economy.

Immigration reform cannot be tackled piecemeal. The border must be made more secure - but that can be done only as part of a comprehensive plan that includes a guest worker component.

The Bush administration seemed to understand this. "We're going to need more than just brute enforcement," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. "We're going to need a temporary worker program as well."

But administration officials said the Bush immigration reform plan will allow those now illegally in the United States to pay a fine and join a guest worker program for only six years before returning to their home countries.

It doesn't take much imagination to know that when those six years expire, many people will simply melt back into the United States instead of leaving.