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Politics

Bush defends deportation

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 13, 2007

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - President Bush's message of goodwill in Latin American ran into a wall in Guatemala on Monday, as he defended his efforts to establish a temporary worker program but gave no ground on the deportation of illegal workers.

"The United States will enforce our law," Bush said during a news conference with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger. "It's against the law to hire somebody who's in our country illegally."

Deportation is a sore issue in Guatemala, and Bush's host bluntly told him: "The Guatemalan people would have preferred a more clear and positive response - no more deportations."

Bush's meetings here with Berger, a conservative leader who has become a strong U.S. ally, were dominated by trade and the difficult immigration issue.

It came after Bush and Berger spent the morning visiting villages in the mountains that ring the Guatemalan capital, as Bush sought to emphasize U.S. largesse.

They toured an American military center that provides basic medical care and physician training. He and Laura Bush handed out hygiene kits at an elementary school. And the president helped to load lettuce headed for the global market onto a truck at a farmers' cooperative.

That, he said later, was "one of the great experiences of my presidency."

Bush pleased Guatemalans by promising to push hard - and quickly - for changes that would include a temporary-worker program for illegal workers in the United States.

But he stood firm in the face of questions over deportations of illegal workers, such as a raid in Massachusetts last week.

Federal authorities detained more than 300 employees of a leather goods maker - most from Guatemala and El Salvador - for possible deportation as illegal immigrants.

"Just so you know, when we enforce the law, we do so in a fair and rational way," he said. "People are welcome, but under the law."

Bush said he hadn't expected the level of questions he faced on the subject and tried to put the concerns in a positive light.

About 500 people marched toward the centrally located national palace - site of the meetings and news conference - to protest Bush's visit, some carrying signs with anti-Bush messages and others burning an effigy of the president. The demonstration was mostly peaceful, but more than 5,000 police and soldiers surrounded the palace.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 02:12:13]