Countywide : Talk With Bush on Immigration Cited

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said Wednesday that during a White House meeting on the budget, he briefly discussed with President Bush his legislative package to halt illegal immigration into the United States.

“I was pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this crisis with the President and to personally inform him of the dimensions of the problem,” he said in a statement. Gallegly said he caught the President’s ear when he joined a breakfast meeting at the White House with a bipartisan group of congressmen supporting a balanced budget amendment.

Bush told Gallegly that he considered illegal immigration a major concern, a spokesman for the congressman said.

“The President said to send copies of the legislation to the White House and supporting information and we did,” Gallegly spokesman John Frith said.

Last week, Gallegly said he asked Vice President Dan Quayle to propose that Bush assign 10,000 U. S. soldiers to patrol the nation’s borders to prevent illegal immigration. Gallegly has declared that a flood of illegal immigrants is having an adverse impact on Southern California’s economy.

Gallegly is running for reelection in the 23rd Congressional District, which includes most of Ventura County. He is the author of a controversial constitutional amendment that would deny U. S. citizenship to children born in the United States of parents who are illegal immigrants.