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 News from Around the Americas | June 2006 
First Guard Troops to Start Work at Mexican Border
 CNN
| | Wyoming Air Guard Staff Sgt. Mark Nelson, top, inspects his C130hc cargo plane before transporting members of the 116th, 1457th and 489th units of the Utah National Guard at the airport Saturday in Salt Lake City. The guard flew to Yuma, Ariz., to assist in patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP/Douglas C. Pizac) |
The first of about 6,000 National Guard troops ordered to bolster patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border will start work Monday as a 55-member detachment from Utah begins working on projects in southern Arizona, a Guard spokesman said.
Members of the 116th Construction Support Equipment Company and elements of the 1457th and 489th engineering companies had been scheduled for several months to conduct their two-week annual unit training near the San Luis, Arizona, border crossing, said Maj. Hank McIntire, a Utah National Guard spokesman.
But the troops were told Friday that they would be placed under the umbrella of Operation Jump Start, the deployment President Bush announced in May.
The Utah contingent will be working to extend an existing fence at the frontier, set up lighting around the border crossing and build a road parallel to the border, McIntire said.
"These are ongoing projects, and we're pleased to be a part of it," he said. "We're glad to do our mission."
The Utah Guard units will be working alongside troops from Arizona. The Arizonans have managed various projects along border for more than a year, he said.
Border security is just one aspect of the ongoing debate over immigration.
Last week Bush urged the House and Senate to work out compromise legislation on immigration reform.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president said reconciling the bills already passed by the two chambers will be difficult.
"Yet the difficulty of this task is no excuse for avoiding it," he said. "The American people expect us to meet our responsibility and deliver immigration reform that fixes the problems in the current system."
Bush restated his support for improved border security, a guest worker program, and accountability for employers who hire illegal workers.
He also discussed the contentious issue of creating a "path to citizenship" for the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States.
"Some members of Congress argue that no one who came to this country illegally should be allowed to continue living and working in our country, and that any plan that allows them to stay equals amnesty, no matter how many conditions we impose," Bush said.
"I appreciate the members are acting on deeply felt principles. I understand that. Yet I also believe that the approach they suggest is wrong and unrealistic," he continued. "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program that requires every illegal immigrant to leave."
In May, the Senate approved a wide-ranging overhaul of immigration laws, voting 62-36 to bolster security at the Mexican border and to grant many illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.
But the inclusion of that path set the stage for a battle with the House of Representatives, which passed a stricter bill in December.
The House and Senate bills next head to a conference committee for possible reconciliation.
A top House opponent to the Senate plan said Friday that senators who passed the bill were not being honest.
"What's going on now, in calling it a pathway to citizenship or earned legalization, is not honest because it is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Sensenbrenner, like all House members, faces midterm elections in the fall.
"I don't plan on signing a conference report that might look good on a bumper sticker," Sensenbrenner said at a Washington news conference.
Several senators said after the vote that the president's participation in the political maneuvering will be key to crafting a compromise.
"I believe we can do it," Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters. "I believe the president will put a very heavy shoulder to the wheel."
Bush commended the Senate on its work in "passing bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform."
"I look forward to working together with both the House of Representatives and the Senate to produce a bill for me to sign into law," he said in a statement.
The prospects for that, however, remain uncertain.
Most members of the GOP majority in the Senate voted against the measure, with 23 backing it and 32 opposing. Among Democrats voting, 38 supported the bill and four did not. The chamber's Independent senator voted in favor.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who voted for the bill, has called for swift talks with the House to mold a compromise measure.
The House bill passed in December focuses on border enforcement, and omits a guest-worker program and a legalization process for illegal immigrants. |
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