Bush visits Yuma, set to inspect border security measures

Apr 9, 11:31 AM EDT
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- President Bush arrived here Monday for an update on the National Guard's progress in helping the Border Patrol secure the border, and to resume his stump for comprehensive immigration reform.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, an advocate of National guard involvement, was set to accompany the president as he set out on a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Last May, the president kicked off a plan to send 6,000 National Guard troops to Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico to assist the Border Patrol along the Mexican border in efforts to cut illegal immigration.

Under the plan, guardsmen were assigned a number of duties for up to two years in assisting the patrol, without actually patrolling the border or acting in any law enforcement capacity, while the Border Patrol hires another 6,000 agents to bring its total to 18,000.

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Apr 9, 10:22 AM EDT

On the border, Bush returns focus to immigration

By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush returns to work Monday on the volatile issue of immigration, where his hope for a legislative breakthrough is complicated by cold relations with Congress.

Bush will be back in Yuma, Ariz., to inspect the construction of border fencing and to push for the creation of a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The trip serves as a bookend to the visit Bush made to the same southwest desert city last May.

It also comes as tension rises over a new immigration proposal tied to the White House.

Bush's team is privately working hard to rally votes for what Bush calls comprehensive reform - a mix of get-tough security with promises of fair treatment for undocumented residents.

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Bush aims for reform at border

Return trip to Yuma to focus on migration
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 9, 2007 12:00 AM

President Bush returns to Yuma today to promote what the White House called "significant immigration reform," one year after he announced the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops along the Mexican border.

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Bush arrives in Yuma
Published: 04.09.2007
Tucson Citizen

YUMA, Ariz. - President Bush arrived here today for an update on the National Guard's progress in helping the Border Patrol secure the border, and to resume his stump for comprehensive immigration reform.