Tab For Border Security: $1.9B

(CBS/AP)  President Bush sent Congress a $1.9 billion request Thursday to increase border security as supporters of sweeping immigration legislation reasserted control in Senate debate.

The White House said the money would pay for the "first 1,000 of 6,000 new Border Patrol agents that will be deployed in the next two years," as well as the temporary deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border. The request includes funds for new fencing and other barriers as well as two new unmanned surveillance aircraft and five helicopters to curb illegal immigration.

The White House sent the request to Congress as the president traveled to Yuma, Ariz., to dramatize his commitment to border control and the Senate labored over the most sweeping overhaul of immigration law in two decades.

After voting narrowly and largely along party lines Wednesday night to bar guest workers from petitioning on their own for legal status, the Senate reconsidered. On a bipartisan vote of 56-43, the prohibition was diluted to say guest workers may generally seek legal status on their own if the government determines no American workers are available to fill the job.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the proposal that cleared on Wednesday night was designed to protect American workers, and the replacement would "put American workers in the back seat and foreign workers...in the front seat."

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said, "I think there is a higher value in not having the immigrant subject to the control of the employer where there may be coercion and pressure..."

Senate leaders have said they hope for passage of the controversial legislation by next week. It includes measures to tighten control over the borders, create a new guest worker program and offer a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. Prospects for final congressional passage this year are highly uncertain, given the strong opposition among Republicans to Mr. Bush's proposals concerning citizenship.

Mr. Bush's funding request came with a pledge that it would not lead to a short-term increase in the deficit. The White House said it would offset the spending by "delaying certain less-urgent military procurement efforts" to future spending bills.

The developments came one day after a series of clashes that made the national debate over immigration seem like a family feud, Republican style.

"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators in any attempt to draft a compromise immigration bill later this year.

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