White House Gaggle

By Victoria Jones
White House Gaggle
May 15, 2006
By Victoria Jones

The President will address the nation tonight on the subject of immigration at 8 pm Eastern.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that the President started thinking about giving this address during a trip to California two weeks ago; he also spoke with and listened to members of Congress. There was a formal run through of the address on Friday. The speech runs roughly 20

minutes.

There was a call with Vicente Fox, the President of Mexico, on Sunday. The President assured President Fox that there was no attempt to militarize the border. The two also agreed to continue to work
cooperatively on matters of law enforcement and security in the border areas.

The President will make a stop in a border state on Thursday. Details to come.

Press Secretary Snow said that he would not get into specifics about the speech, but would make a few points. The National Guard will not be in law enforcement roles; they will be in supportive roles. The keystone is to build up the border patrol over a period of time. What the President is proposing in terms of supplementing and building up the border patrol is far more dramatic than anything the House or the Senate has contemplated legislatively.

The President cares very deeply about this issue, Snow said. The four principles on this are border security, interior enforcement, temporary guest worker program and assimilation. Those four issues will be addressed tonight. The reason why now, is that the United States Senate is debating this. The President wants to work with both Houses of Congress.

Snow said the President and the White House have been conducting ongoing talks with the Department of Defense. The two important guiding principles are that there is going to be nothing to compromise the ability to fight the war on terror, and at the same time to maintain the ability of the guard to respond quickly and effectively to natural disasters.