The U.S.-Mexican border runs through Nogales, with the Arizona side on the left and the Sonora side on the right of the fence.

Lindsay A. Miller / Arizona Daily Star

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Up to 6,000 National Guard troops are headed for the border with Mexico in the latest effort by President Bush to build consensus for a major overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

In a prime-time address to the nation Monday night, Bush said the troops were needed to support the U.S. Border Patrol, adding, "We do not yet have full control of the border and I am determined to change that."

During the 17-minute speech from the Oval Office, Bush said the National Guard would not be charged with patrolling the border but do jobs that would free Border Patrol agents to do their work. He also urged Congress to support a guest-worker program and a plan that would give many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country a chance at United States citizenship — both measures opposed by Republicans in Congress.

Bush said the National Guard deployment would last one year, long enough for the nation's Border Patrol force to be expanded.

The White House wouldn't say how much the deployment would cost but said the troops would be paid for as part of $1.9 billion being requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year. The Guard troops would serve two-week stints in a rotation that over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops in order to maintain the 6,000-troop level.

Still, Bush insisted, "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border."

But that's exactly what immigrants' rights groups in Tucson say the president's plan would do.

"It's an incredibly dangerous precedent for all of us, not just for those of us who live on the border," said Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos.

Jennifer Allen of the Border Action Network said, "Putting military troops on the border, further blurring the line between law enforcement and immigration, the disposable-worker program; these are not proposals that actually support the values of this country and the reason people want to immigrate into it."

Garcia and Allen, and the Rev. Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders, said the temporary-worker plan will do no good without worker-protection guarantees, an element not mentioned in the speech.

Hoover said the National Guard would be better used interviewing illegal entrants already living inside the country to speed up the legalization process.

Arizona's anti-illegal-immigration activists said the president's plan won't accomplish anything.

"They'll be sitting around doing absolutely nothing," said Minuteman Civil Defense Corps President Chris Simcox. "It's smoke and mirrors, it's a joke. And anybody that buys it is the fool that the president thinks they are."

Simcox said the president was clearly pandering for votes and attempting to appease his voting base.

"We need a border that is militarized and we need to start with the Mexican border," Simcox said.

Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, said "the president is reacting to pressure. The polls show that he is very unpopular and the polls show that the American people want something done about the border, so he has been grabbed, kicking and screaming, into confronting the issue."

Regular troops, not National Guard troops, should be headed to the border, said Wes Bramhall, president of Arizonans for Immigration Control.

"It's in many areas of the world where it shouldn't be," said Bramhall about the military. "Their biggest job should be to protect our borders, which they are not doing."

While the president gave no indication of how many of the 6,000 troops would be based in Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano said she and other border governors were told by Bush adviser Karl Rove that deployments would be based on the size of the problem.

Napolitano, who asked the federal government to fund the deployment of the National Guard to the border earlier this year, said "The president is right when he says we do not want to militarize the border, we are not at war with Mexico."

She said those who want National Guard troops patrolling the border and seeking out illegal crossers "fundamentally misunderstand" their role.

In the Arizona House, Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who has led much of the fight at the Capitol to enact new state laws designed to combat border crossers, said the nation is facing an invasion, and limiting the role of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to support functions is not enough.

Others, including Senate Majority Leader Tim Bee, R-Tucson, said Guard troops should take a more active enforcement role on the border.

"Obviously we'd like to see something very active, and not a passive role," said Bee, whose district includes a large portion of Southern Arizona.

Legislative leaders rejected Napolitano's request to shelve plans to enact a state border security plan until Congress concludes its deliberations. Senate President Ken Bennett said today's debate will proceed, because Arizona can't wait to see what — if anything — Congress approves.

Bush's plan got better reviews from the Arizona delegation to Washington, including Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who said the Guard will help free up Border Patrol agents to their jobs more effectively, and improve enforcement, the centerpiece of the immigration reforms he is fighting for in the Senate.

"Until the federal government can convince the American people that it is serious about securing our borders, it will be hard to consider other factors of immigration reform," Kyl wrote in the statement.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., liked the positive way the president portrayed illegal immigrants and his support for a temporary-worker program with a path to citizenship. But Grijalva was distressed about the plan to bring the National Guard to the border.

"It does nothing to help that in the short term or the long term," Grijalva said. "It's a political appeasement on his part and it's a serious mistake."

Rep. Jeff Flake, a GOP co-sponsor of one of the guest-worker proposals that failed in the House, said he's comfortable with the plan for the National Guard as long as it stays in a support role.

Neither Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. could be reached Monday.

In Nogales, Ariz., border residents were mixed in their reaction to the president's plan to use the National Guard to assist the Border Patrol.

"It's a great idea for a limited time," said Arnold Montiel Jr., general manager of Mazon's Food Market, just inside the border. "They should act as a support system, but they should not detain people."

But Danny Zuñiga, who manages a Food City store a couple miles north of the downtown Port of Entry, said the presence of the National Guard on the border could scare Mexican customers away.

Roughly 40 percent of the store's customers come from Nogales, Sonora, he said.

"It would be devastating for the business community," said Zuñiga, adding that the deployment could mean longer car inspections and delays for legal border crossers who shop frequently on the Arizona side.

Nogales resident Federico Lagarda said the National Guard might help to secure the border from potential terrorists, as well as reduce the flow of drugs. But it probably would just push illegal border crossers to less patrolled areas, he said.

With a National Guard presence on the border, he said, "Polleros will just charge more money to smuggle people across."

In his speech, Bush said illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for extended periods without problems deserve a path to eventual citizenship — and he rejected the notion that that amounts to amnesty.

"It is neither wise nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States, and send them across the border," he said. "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation."

The Border Patrol would still be responsible for catching and detaining illegal immigrants, with National Guard troops providing intelligence-gathering, surveillance and other administrative support. Yet the National Guard troops would still be armed and authorized to use force to protect themselves, said Bush Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend.

Guard troops would come from the four border states — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but those states' governors may also seek Guard troops from other states.

The White House hopes deployments to the border will begin in early June.