U.S. Can Be ‘Welcoming,’ ‘Lawful’

With the Senate poised for an emotional debate on immigration law this week, President Bush called Saturday for an immigration policy that embraces some foreign workers while increasing security at the nation’s borders.

“America does not have to choose between being a welcoming society and being a lawful society. We can do both at the same time,” Bush said in his weekly radio address, which he devoted to a subject that has divided his party and the nation.

The president repeated his call for a guest-worker program that would “create a legal way to match willing foreign workers with willing American employers to fill jobs that Americans will not do.”

At the same time, Bush endorsed measures already underway to tighten security. He repeated his opposition to amnesty, which he said would “allow those who break the law to jump ahead of people who play by the rules and wait in the citizenship line.”

Since he took office, Bush said, border security funding has risen 66% and the Department of Homeland Security has caught and sent home nearly 6 million illegal immigrants.

“We’re making good progress, but we have much more work ahead, and we will not be satisfied until we have control of our border,” he said.

Striving to appear both tough and compassionate on a contentious subject, Bush announced he would attend a naturalization ceremony Monday in Washington, saying “America is better off” because of those who immigrate legally.

But the president’s remarks fell against a backdrop of bicoastal unrest.

In Los Angeles and elsewhere, huge rallies have been held to protest strict immigration curbs passed by the House in December. That bill, sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), calls for erecting a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border and making it a felony to immigrate illegally or help someone who has.

In Washington, the Senate is expected to take up its own proposals this week to overhaul immigration policy, with lawmakers bitterly split over key provisions, such as whether to permit some of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States to stay while pursuing legal status.

Members of the restaurant, hotel and agricultural industries favor an approach by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) that includes a guest-worker program that would lead to legal status as well as a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants already in the United States.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) proposed a bill last week that addresses only border security and enforcement, with no provisions for allowing current undocumented workers to remain in the United States or additional foreigners to enter for work.

Congressional and public rhetoric has grown so heated that Bush last week called for the discussion to proceed “in a way that brings dignity to the process.”

Again on Saturday, he asked those deciding the issue to remember that “there are hard-working individuals, doing jobs that Americans will not do, who are contributing to the economic vitality of our country.”

Much is at stake for Bush and his party. A harsh debate over immigration could wipe out recent GOP gains among Latinos, whose move toward the Republican Party has been a key objective for Bush’s chief political advisor, Karl Rove.