Border Agents Assail Bush’s Plan to Bring in Guest Workers

HOUSTON —  U.S. Border Patrol agents, charged with enforcing the nation’s border laws, are furious about President Bush’s proposal to create a guest worker program for millions of illegal immigrants, union leaders say.

In interviews this week, nearly three dozen current and former agents across the nation called Bush’s proposal an insult to the thousands of men and women who have devoted their careers to fighting illegal immigration, including wave after wave along the California-Mexico border.

The agents -- many of whom otherwise support the White House -- savaged the Bush proposal as a grab for Latino votes and a favor to the business community, factions of which rely on cheap immigrant labor. And they say they are bracing for a rush of people trying to sneak into the United States.

“We get rocks thrown at us. We get shot at. We get spit on,” said James Stack, a representative of the agents’ union and a 16-year veteran who patrols the border near El Paso.

“There have been many agents who have given their lives in the line of duty,” Stack said. “This seems to say that those deaths were for nothing, and that this administration is not truly concerned about immigration.”

The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents approximately 9,000 rank-and-file agents, has launched a political campaign -- complete with a website -- to try to pressure Congress to reject the administration’s proposal when it comes up for a vote.

Retired agent John H. Frecker, a Maine resident and regional union leader who was with the Border Patrol for 26 years, recently sent this letter to the membership: “Hey, you know all those illegal aliens you risked ‘life and limb’ to [apprehend]? Fah-ged-abowd-it. President Bush has solved the problem.”

White House officials declined to comment for this report.

It is difficult to pinpoint how many immigrants cross the border illegally each year, and too soon to determine whether there would be a significant increase along the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border in response to Bush’s proposal.

But several agents said there was anecdotal evidence that an immigration wave already had begun. People recently detained along the border, the agents said, have demanded “amnesty” upon their capture.

The federal government’s offer of amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants in 1986 -- almost a third of them in Southern California -- was intended largely to reduce immigration. But even by conservative estimates, the number of illegal immigrants has doubled since then, while the overall population of the nation has increased about 20%. Agents say they have no reason to believe the results will be any different this time.

“The increase in numbers is going to be phenomenal,” said Charlie Maxwell, a union leader and senior Border Patrol agent in Brownsville, Texas.

In his State of the Union address this week, Bush said his proposal would reform immigration laws, strengthen the economy and allow Border Patrol agents to “focus on true threats to our national security.” Bush was careful to point out that he does not favor “amnesty.”

Anticipating, however, that the president’s promise of a limited legalization program might be misinterpreted by would-be immigrants, top officials at the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- the Border Patrol’s parent agency -- last week prepared a questionnaire for agents to use when quizzing people they have detained. Among the questions, according to documents obtained by The Times, were: “Did the rumors of amnesty influence your decision to enter the USA?” and “Do you plan to apply for amnesty if it is offered?”

Immigration bureau spokesman Mario Villareal said the questionnaire has been revised to delete references to “amnesty” and replace them with “guest worker program” references.

Border Patrol agents also were given an “approved statement” to read to members of the public or media who asked about the proposal. It reads, in part: “The president’s recently announced plan to create a temporary worker program holds the promise of strengthening our control over U.S. borders and in turn improving our homeland security.”

The document then instructs agents not to reveal information that could raise questions about the plan. Under a section titled “key points,” the document said: “Do not speculate about the program. Do not talk about amnesty, increase in apprehensions, or give comparisons of past immigration reform proposals. Do not provide statistics on apprehension spikes or past amnesty data.”

Villareal said the document was not intended to muzzle criticism of the administration’s plan, which has come under fire from both liberals and conservatives.

“It is just general guidance for consistency and nothing more than that,” he said.

The collective bargaining agreement that governs the Border Patrol agents’ union guarantees top officers the right to publicly criticize government programs. All of the agents who agreed to discuss the Bush proposal for this article said they were speaking in their capacity as union representatives.

Immigration officials estimate that there are between 8 million and 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. T.J. Bonner, a 25-year veteran of the force and president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the number might be closer to 16 million.

Bush’s proposal would allow illegal immigrants already in the United States to register for a three-year work permit to remain here legally as guest workers. The proposal would apply to workers who hold jobs that employers can demonstrate Americans are unwilling to take. Employers also would be allowed to import workers if they cannot find Americans to fill jobs.

Critics on both ends of the political spectrum have said Bush’s proposal does not fully address the problems associated with illegal immigration. Many have suggested the governments of Mexico and the United States would have more effect if they took action against U.S. employers who exploit illegal workers or if they attempted to create new jobs in Mexico.

But Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Commissioner Robert C. Bonner, a former U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles, has defended the proposal as an important tool in fighting terrorism. In an interview, Bonner, who is not related to the union president, said that allowing immigrants to register as guest workers would “result in cutting down the flow of illegal aliens.”

“This isn’t amnesty.... It’s facing a reality,” the immigration commissioner said. “Like it or not, there is a very large number of people who have come into the U.S. illegally or have overstayed their visas. It’s important for homeland security reasons to know who these people are.”

Bonner stressed that the president’s proposal would not alter the Border Patrol’s mission of stemming the flow of illegal immigration. In a Jan. 13 message to immigration and customs bureau employees, the commissioner said that “illegally entering the U.S. was a crime yesterday, it is a crime today, and it will be a crime once the president’s new proposal is finalized.”

Many analysts, however, said that the proposal is problematic. University of Virginia law professor David A. Martin -- ex-general counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol’s former parent agency -- said that “the plan is not well thought out.”

Many analysts believe that for the program to work, the government would have to simultaneously deport millions of people once their temporary work permits expired. That would be virtually impossible, the analysts said, and would effectively allow immigrants to remain in the United States forever.

“Its impact will be similar to amnesty,” Martin said.

In an attempt to carry that message to the public, the National Border Patrol Council has established a website -- www.noamnesty.com -- calling the guest worker proposal a “slap in the face.” The site says Bush “has decided that cheap labor and votes outweigh obedience to laws.”

At a union meeting in the San Diego area last week, 35 agents urged their leadership to use the media, particularly talk radio, to make the public aware of their opposition to Bush’s proposal.

In the meantime, many agents said, they feel as if they are fighting for a cause their employer no longer believes in.

“I still try to arrest aliens who are in the interior of the country. Should I keep doing that?” asked Richard Pierce, a union leader based in Tampa, Fla., and a 24-year veteran of the force.

“At some point in the future, the president has the idea that he’s going to say ‘OK, stop doing that,’ ” Pierce said. “Border Patrol agents around the country are wondering about their relevance -- why they get up in the morning, why they go to work.”

Union leaders and rank-and-file agents say the sense of distrust and betrayal is widespread in the Border Patrol. An attempt by The Times to locate agents who supported Bush’s proposal was unsuccessful.

T.J. Bonner, the union president, said agents are not shy about letting him know when his lobbying is misguided. In this case, he said, the response has been unanimous.

“I have not heard from anyone saying, ‘You’re off base,’ ” he said. “Every person I have heard from, and there have been many, has said, ‘Keep pounding away; you’re right on target.’ Even managers. They say they can’t speak out. But they say that they appreciate what we’re doing.”

Frecker, the retired Border Patrol agent in Maine, agreed that the opposition to Bush’s proposal is widespread within the agency.

“Nobody -- not one soul -- thinks this is good idea,” he said. “It just flies in the face of everything we do.”

In the last 10 days, Mexican President Vicente Fox has expressed support for Bush’s proposal, and the Senate’s top Democrat has joined forces with a Republican colleague to offer an immigration plan with goals similar to Bush’s -- linking work to the prospect of legal residency.

Still, many analysts say Bush’s chances of pushing his plan through Congress are shaky. Beyond the political criticism, some officials have begun expressing concern that the proposal is simply impractical -- from the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to track millions of previously undocumented immigrants to the possibility of fraud.

Immigration experts, however, said the agents’ lobbying effort likely will have little effect on the debate.

“The business community, AFL-CIO and the immigrant community are the political forces that are going to determine whether the president’s proposal passes” Congress, said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. The Washington-based group is an association of 8,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law.

As for his agents’ criticism, Bonner said: “Like every law enforcement agency, they spout off and speak out. I’m proud of what they’ve done and are doing day and night to protect our border.”

Gold reported from Houston and Reza from San Diego.