Bush border plan worries Mexico

President Bush’s plan to send National Guard troops to patrol the southern border of the United States has raised the concern of his longtime ally President Vicente Fox of Mexico, who called Bush on Sunday to express his worries.

President Bush’s plan to send National Guard troops to patrol the southern border of the United States has raised the concern of his longtime ally President Vicente Fox of Mexico, who called Bush on Sunday to express his worries.

White House officials said Bush assured Fox that a permanent National Guard presence on the border was not being considered. “The President made clear that the US considers Mexico a friend,” said Maria Tamburri, a White House spokeswoman.

Tamburri said the President told Fox, “What is being considered is not a militarisation of the border, but support of border patrol capabilities, on a temporary basis, by National Guard personnel.”

In a televised address scheduled for Monday, Bush is expected to call for a significantly increased National Guard presence at the border. Officials have indicated that Bush could call for a force of thousands but that it would not be as high as 10,000, a number that had been rumored late last week.

Reports of the plan over the weekend also caused concern among lawmakers, including some Republicans, who said they feared the National Guard was already overextended with military missions abroad and with its response to natural disasters at home.

On Monday, Bush is also expected to outline several other proposals aimed at sealing the border and cracking down on workers who are illegally in the US, and the employers who hire them. Aides said he would renew his calls for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration law that includes provisions to grant illegal immigrants the right to work here legally.

White House officials have made it clear that they hope that a plan to seal the border will help Bush in that effort to strike a compromise between any bill passed in the Senate and the one passed in December in the House, where many Republicans have opposed any steps to

legalise illegal workers.

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Lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns on Sunday about the idea of deploying the National Guard. Senator Chuck Hagel, who helped draft the Senate immigration bill, said he was skeptical about whether the plan would work. “We have stretched our military as thin as we have ever seen it in modern times,” Hagel said on This Week on ABC. But White House officials said last week that they believed the president’s address on Monday would be welcomed by voters. —JIM RUTENBERG