Bush to push immigration reform on Yuma visit, eye new fences


TUCSON, Ariz. -- Eleven months after visiting Yuma to announce Operation Jump Start _ National Guard troops assisting the Border Patrol to help secure the border _ President Bush returns Monday to assess progress and push for comprehensive immigration reform.


Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who urged deployment of National Guard troops along the Mexican border to help stem the flood of illegal immigration that has beset Arizona for years, was invited and will be accompanying the president. Bush ordered 6,000 Guard troops to assist with a variety of tasks for up to two years while the Border Patrol hires another 6,000 agents to reach a force of 18,000.

"He wants to see Operation Jump Start, which is a National Guard mission, and how it's going," the governor said.

But her fellow Democrats representing Arizona's counties bordering Mexico, Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Rep. Raul Grijalva, will not be present despite White House invitations to join Bush. Their spokesmen cited prior commitments.

Both Giffords and Grijalva are co-sponsors of immigration reform legislation offered last month by Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

Grijalva's press secretary, Natalie Luna, said Grijalva, whose district includes the Yuma area, hopes Bush's visit will highlight the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Napolitano said Thursday she hopes to be able to discuss such legislation with the president.

Last week, the White House floated a draft of legislation considered more conservative than a bill the Senate approved last year, which Bush supported.

Napolitano said she thinks a number of issues will come up on the president's visit, including efforts to provide funding for the Bureau of Land Management to clear out invasive salt cedar stands along the Colorado River that provide hiding places and campgrounds for illegal immigrants.

"I think it will be an assessment of where we are on the border, in light of the Guard having been there 10 months or so," she said.

Napolitano also said there likely would be discussion of some specific issues related to the Border Patrol's Yuma and Tucson sectors.

Arizona Republican Party state chairman Randy Pullen said Bush should get the credit for lower cross border activity in the Yuma Sector.

"Its a tremendous honor any time President Bush comes to Arizona, but even more so when he comes to Arizona to talk about border security."

The president has said he wants to see reform legislation passed this year.

What he will see along the border on both sides of the San Luis port of entry, some 25 miles south of Yuma, is a lot of construction. National Guard troops are working to complete several miles of 15-foot tall primary fencing made of surplus steel landing mat on the Mexican border.

North of it they have built an all-weather road, along the middle of which they are installing a 20-foot-tall, see-through steel mesh fence.

Border Patrol agents will be to patrol along both sides. Stadium lighting and sophisticated cameras on tall towers also are being installed _ all designed to deter illegal immigrant crossings.

A third layer of chain link fencing topped with barbed wire on top runs for a little more than two miles west of the port of entry up to the Colorado River. Then going north along the river, numerous Guard observation teams are situated about a quarter-mile to half-mile apart, watching for border crossers to report to the Border Patrol.