Immigrant plan revived

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SANTIAGO, Chile -- President Bush assured Mexico yesterday that he would expend "political capital" earned in his re-election to push hard to grant guest-worker status to millions of illegal immigrants.

The president said he had "campaigned on this issue" in the election.

At a joint press conference last night with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos to close a summit of 21 Pacific Rim nations, he suggested that critics in Congress who think his proposal will overwhelm an already taxed Border Patrol are mistaken.

"It makes sense for border security," Mr. Bush said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. "We'd much rather have security guards running down terrorists or drug runners or drug smugglers than people coming to work."

Mr. Bush has tried since the first month of his presidency in 2001 to push an immigration-reform bill through Congress that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States indefinitely, and others to cross the border from Mexico, if they registered for "temporary worker cards."

Conservatives have cited security concerns -- especially a report that al Qaeda was contemplating plans to smuggle a dirty bomb into the U.S. through the southern border -- and have charged that the Bush plan amounts to a blanket amnesty program for people defiantly breaking the law.

Two dozen congressmen wrote a letter to the president opposing the plan, but Mr. Bush yesterday dismissed their objections.

"I get letters all the time from people who are trying to steer me one way or the other when it comes to legislation," Mr. Bush said. "I'm going to move forward.

"In the letter, I noticed they're objecting to the program because it's an amnesty program," he said. "It's not an amnesty program. It's a worker program."

Mr. Bush said the program would not allow holders of the worker card to get on a fast track to citizenship, but would force them "to get in line with the people who have done so legally."