Editorial: Hasty retreat by Bush?

Thursday, July 6, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

As the House begins nationwide hearings on its immigration bill this week, President Bush has indicated he may be open to Republicans' enforcement-first approach, which would mean that the president is retreating from his previous call for a comprehensive immigration plan.

According to a Wednesday story by The New York Times, sources inside and outside the White House say Bush may be willing to negotiate with House Republicans who support putting strict border enforcement programs in place before establishing working rights or paths to citizenship for people already living in the United States illegally.

In an uncharacteristic, but refreshing, departure from the hard line on immigration taken by some conservatives, Bush has been publicly and staunchly supporting the Senate's more comprehensive immigration proposal, which would enact border security, citizenship and guest-worker programs simultaneously. That he now may step back from this more realistic and humane view is significant and troubling.

Republicans, who seemed to assume that their borders-first philosophy would unify their constituency and seal up November's midterm elections, were dumped into the middle of a contentious national debate when Bush announced he supported the Senate's more comprehensive immigration approach.

That Bush now may be willing to embrace a plan that would enact guest-worker and citizenship programs - only after as-yet undetermined border security goals are met - gives conservative GOP candidates some coverage for the upcoming elections. But it leaves little coverage for the United States' estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants - about 105,000 of whom live in Nevada, comprising 10 percent of the state's workforce .

Immigration reform isn't as simple as putting up a fence. We must secure the nation's borders while also making it possible for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States to obtain legal status. A borders-first policy that promises guest-worker and citizenship programs later could have a disastrous effect, as the United States could end up with miles of border fences and nothing else.